Seas Between Us (Broad Have Roared)

Author: enigmaticblue <enigmaticblue@yahoo.com>

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Do I have to say it? They aren't mine. If they were, I'd be nicer than Joss.

Archive: Anywhere that already has my stuff. Anywhere else just ask.

Summary: Set in an alternate Angel S5, wherein Andrew tells Buffy that Spike's alive after Damage and she does something about it, upsetting the power structure while she's at it.

A/N: This story takes place after Bring Out Your Dead, and may make a little more sense if you read that one first. The thing to notice is that Lindsey does not enter into this story. I didn't want to deal with the boy since I'm mostly ignoring canon. Just so you aren't terribly surprised.

Chapter 20: Trial by Fire

"...I have my father's hand/I have my mother's tongue/I look for redemption in everyone...Changes come/turn my world around/Changes come/bring the whole thing down...Somedays I think that maybe/This ol' world's too f---ed up/for any firstborn son/ Memories of this untouched beauty/the light and dark both running through me/Is there still redemption for anyone?" ~Over the Rhine, "Changes Come"

Spike decided that Connor was downright scary. It took the boy all of five minutes to cut Sahjahn's head off. Vail had been so pleased that his ancient enemy was dead that he'd forgotten that Connor was just as dangerous to him. His head was rolling just a few moment later, since Connor had decided to take Lorne's advice.

Spike supposed he should have known that it would be a doddle. A child of two vampires was no one to mess with. He'd gone with the boy and taken Buffy along with him just to watch the kid in action. That, and to ensure fair play.

Angel had called the day after Willow broke the memory spell, letting them know what Vail wanted. Connor had spoken to his father, and Spike had been able to hear both sides of the conversation. "Should I do it?" Connor asked.

"He was partly responsible for you growing up in Quortoth," Angel had replied. "He's not a good guy."

"No problem," had been Connor's response, and it really hadn't been. He certainly hadn't needed Spike or Buffy for backup, although they had gone along anyway. He'd then announced his intention to head back up to Stanford. Cordelia had offered to drive him, since he was without transportation now that his foster parents no longer remembered that they had a son.

"Do you think he'll be back?" Buffy asked later that night, after Connor had departed. "He didn't say anything at all about Angel."

Spike shrugged. "I dunno. He's a decent kid, though. I imagine we'll be hearing from him soon enough."

"Soon enough" stretched into weeks. Even though Connor's foster parents didn't remember him, the school still had him enrolled, because that had taken place after Vail cast the spell. His school was paid for by a private scholarship from Wolfram & Hart. He could bury himself in his studies and never come up for air if that's what he chose to do.

Connor called every week, though, to talk to Cordelia and anyone else who happened to answer the phone. The agency went back to normal; Spike and Buffy had made plans to spend a week in Rome, packing up Buffy and Dawn's apartment and seeing the sights together. Wesley and Fred were spending nearly every night at his apartment.

Gunn split his time fairly evenly between Anne's teen shelter and the agency. To someone who knew what to look for, it appeared that they were a little more than friendly. Lorne was looking into starting up Caritas again.

It was nice, almost normal, and there was a huge hole where Angel had been.

Even Spike and Buffy could feel it, although they were more used to Angel not being around than vice versa. They had snagged everyone else from Wolfram & Hart's clutches, and it didn't feel right, leaving Angel behind.

Spike and Buffy left for their Roman holiday at about the same time that Connor came back to the hotel. He moved in quietly, not saying much to anyone. Cordelia was the only one he really talked to, and even then Connor didn't say a lot. Of course, those who remembered the sullen boy who had returned from Quortoth could see that there had been tremendous improvement.

By the time Buffy and Spike returned with Dawn in tow, everyone had settled down into a routine. With Gunn and Connor now available, their case load could—and did—nearly double. Everything seemed to be going well.

Spike had taken Connor with him on a particularly nasty extermination case early in July. Cordy had been fairly specific that no one was to mention Angel in Connor's presence unless the boy brought it up.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Spike knew what was coming. "Sure."

They had finished the job and were driving back towards the Hyperion. Spike made a quick turn, deciding that the scenic route back might be a better choice. "Is Angel ever going to leave Wolfram and Hart?" Connor asked. "I know he took the job there because of me, but—"

When he stopped, Spike filled in the blanks for him. "He bartered his soul."

Connor stared out the window. "So if he leaves, he loses it."

"That's pretty much it in a nutshell," Spike replied. "Trust me, we've been over this a few dozen times, but no one knows exactly how we're goin' to get Peaches out of there."

Connor took a deep breath. "Is there something I can do?"

"I don't know," Spike said honestly. "We can check it out. Lorne might have an idea." He glanced over at Connor, who was certainly family. "Look, you need a hand, I'm there. We are related."

Connor hadn't quite thought of it like that, but he supposed it was true. "I thought you hated Angel."

"Everybody thinks I hate Angel," Spike said, sounding exasperated. "I just like pulling the big oaf's chain. Besides, if I help rescue him, I can rub it in for the next couple of centuries."

Connor couldn't help but laugh at that.

~~~~~

"I wasn't sure you'd come."

Angel watched as Cordelia took the seat across from him. The restaurant was fairly quiet this late in the evening, despite its popularity. He'd invited her to dinner, hardly daring to hope that she would join him.

"What? Miss an opportunity to get a free meal?" Cordelia teased. "Yeah, right. I haven't changed that much, Angel."

"But you've changed," he said quietly.

She had changed. The seeds had been there before she'd been whisked off to a higher plane, but now they were in full bloom. The maturity and poise that he'd fallen in love with were even more in evidence. From everything he'd found out, Cordelia was the one holding the newly reformed agency together.

She had always been the glue.

"Yes, I have," she replied. "It has a tendency to happen as you grow up." Cordelia reached across the table to touch his hand. "How are you, Angel?"

"Good," he said. "Connor came by the other day. Did you know that?"

"No." She smiled. "We've been trying to give him his space. Connor's a good kid." Cordelia gave him a sympathetic look. "You did a good thing."

He looked away. "I didn't really have a choice. Everything—everything seems to be turning out okay, though."

"Do you want to leave?"

No one had asked that question of him yet, had laid it out so starkly. "That's not an option."

"And if it was?" she countered quickly. "We might know of a way, Angel. The question is, do you want to leave?"

Did he? Did he really want to leave Wolfram & Hart behind, to join his friends again, to get back to the job he loved? It should have been an easy decision; it wasn't.

"If that were a possibility, then, yes," he finally said. "I wouldn't mind leaving. Cordy, you know the kind of hold they have. They aren't just going to give up my contract. There isn't—"

"You let us worry about that." Cordelia sounded infinitely calm. "Wesley's working on it, and you know how he is with a problem. He won't let anything stand in his way."

Angel shook his head. "I don't—"

"Don't think about it." She took a deep breath. "Moving on—we never did get to finish that conversation we were supposed to have. I think now might be a really good time."

Her tone brooked no opposition, and Angel gave in. "No, we didn't," he replied. "I wasn't sure there was anything left to finish."

She rolled her eyes in classic Queen C fashion. "Angel, don't be an idiot. You know I love you."

A flutter of hope started in Angel's unbeating heart. "Is that right?"

"Of course," she replied. "Except when you're being an idiot."

~~~~~

"How do I get him out of there?"

Wesley looked up in surprise to see Connor standing in front of his desk, a determined expression on his face. "I'm sorry?"

"How do I get my dad out of Wolfram and Hart?"

The ex-Watcher leaned back in his chair. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "I've run across a couple of things that might work, but neither alternative is particularly attractive."

"Let's hear them," Connor said, sitting down and watching Wesley with an intensity that was unnerving.

"The first is to go to Africa," Wesley said. "That's where Spike won his soul. From what he has said, there are trials to pass, and then one can make a wish. Unfortunately, it seems that may only be open to demons. Angel could go and perhaps win his soul that way, but it's likely that Wolfram and Hart would see it as a defection."

"And Angelus would be loose again." Connor shook his head. "What's the other option?"

Wesley sighed. "Angel once tried to save your mother—Darla—by going through a series of trials. That may be a viable option, but again, we're not sure that it would work. The forces behind the law firm are incredibly powerful. To challenge them for possession of Angel's soul may be virtually impossible."

Connor was silent. "What if we didn't challenge them for Angel's soul?"

"I'm not sure I understand," Wesley replied.

The young man shifted uncomfortably. "What if he died—and then we got him back somehow?"

Wesley frowned, then rummaged through the stacked files on his desk to find the folder holding Angel's contract. He scanned through the relevant sections. He'd read through the document so many times at this point that he could easily pinpoint the key paragraph. "Bloody hell," he muttered. "Why didn't we think of this before?"

Connor wasn't certain what Wesley meant, but he remained silent as the older man dialed Gunn's cell phone number. "Gunn? We need you back at the hotel as soon as possible. I think we may have found a way to extract Angel."

Wesley hung up and looked at the boy he'd betrayed—the child he'd tried to save. He'd loved Connor and Angel enough to give up everything, and now it looked as if he might finally be able to redeem himself. "We're going to get your father back."

Connor nodded. "Yeah, we are."

~~~~~

"So what's the big deal?" Spike asked, once they had all gathered.

Wesley held up the copy of Angel's contract. "I found a loophole." He and Gunn had been going back and forth for the last few hours, trying to determine if it was truly possible to get Angel out of the contract.

"What? How?" Buffy asked. "Are we going to try Spike's method?"

Wesley shook his head. "As we already decided, it's too risky. There's no guarantee that the demon would be able to wrest control of Angel's soul away from the Senior Partners."

"Then what?" Cordelia asked. She'd just come back from dinner with Angel, and was the last to arrive for the meeting. Their date had confirmed what she'd believed: she was still in love with him.

Wesley's expression was one of grim satisfaction. "The contract that they made with Angel stands as long as he's a vampire."

There was a long silence, and then Spike began to shake his head. "So what? There isn't any way to make a vampire human. It's—"

"It's possible," Cordelia contradicted. "Angel was human once."

"When?" Buffy demanded.

She shrugged. "A few years ago. He got the Oracles to turn back time so he could stay a vampire. He thought it would be better that way."

Fred was frowning. "But how? I mean, technically, turning a vampire human again is impossible. You'd have to get rid of the demon, and since you've got a dead body—"

"In Angel's case it was Mohra blood," Cordelia replied. "But Mohra demons are usually in a completely different dimension. It's going to be impossible to find one."

Wesley shook his head. "Not impossible," he argued.

"That's not the point," Gunn interrupted. "We're not talkin' about going after a demon for this."

"I take it Connor has decided to endure the trials," Lorne said quietly.

Wesley hesitated. "It hasn't been decided that it will be Connor."

"Yes, it has been," Connor said, his chin set stubbornly. "He's my dad, and he's there because of me."

"Connor—" Cordelia began, uncomfortable with the idea of the young man placing himself in that much danger. She still remembered how badly beaten Angel had been when he was done with the trials.

"He's right." Everyone's eyes turned to Spike. "Connor's got the right to do this. Angel's his family, an' he's old enough to decide for himself. There's no one else better suited."

Relief touched Connor's eyes. "Thanks."

Buffy was nodding. "Not that I'm totally in favor of the plan, but Spike and I are probably the only other people who stand a chance of doing this—"

"And we're not goin' to risk it," Spike finished for her. "Not that we don't want Angel out of that law firm, but we've both died saving the world. Neither one of us are in a hurry to die savin' Angel from himself."

"What's the guarantee that Angel wouldn't try to be a vampire again?" Fred asked tentatively. "If he went and had time turned back in the past, wouldn't he try it again?"

"He'd better not," Wesley said sharply. "Not if it's the only way."

"Angel was worried about a prophecy at the time," Cordelia said, with a significant look at Spike. "But that's not necessarily an issue anymore."

"What prophecy?" Buffy asked suspiciously. She glared at Spike. "You didn't tell me you were part of a prophecy."

"'m not," Spike said. "Or I might be, but it doesn't really matter. Just says that the souled vampire will become human after he's saved the world a few hundred times. Don't know that it applies to me."

"No one knows," Gunn inserted. "It doesn't matter, though. What matters is that if we can turn Angel human, the contract doesn't apply to him, because he's essentially a different person, and a new legal entity."

"Can it be done?" Connor asked Lorne.

Lorne gave him a long look. "Well, if it can be, you're the only one who has a chance of succeeding, cupcake. It's worth a shot, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," he said. "I'm doing it."

~~~~~

"I hear I missed all the excitement," Dawn said, poking her head into Connor's room. She'd just come back from visiting Janice, who had moved to L.A. shortly before Sunnydale disappeared from the map.

He looked up, offering her a smile. "You didn't miss much. It was mostly arguing."

"So you're really going to do this?" she asked.

"If it was Buffy or Spike, wouldn't you?"

"In a heartbeat," Dawn replied, sitting down next to him on the bed. "When are you going?"

Connor shrugged. "Tonight, I guess. Lorne knows where it is, so he's going to take me, but I have to go in by myself."

"Are you going to tell Angel?"

"No." Connor smiled. "Do you really think he'd let me go?"

Dawn laughed. "Knowing him, he'd probably tie you up or something."

Connor studied her. When Dawn had come back from Italy, he'd found himself still attracted to her, although they weren't dating. The attraction had a lot more to do with the fact that she was from the same world that he was, knew what it was to be something other than completely human. Dawn had once been a green, glowy thing, even if she wasn't anymore. She wasn't too freaked out by him being superboy.

Still, dating could make things complicated, and right now he wanted a friend more than anything else. Connor wanted someone his own age he could talk to at moments like this. A fellow orphan-of-a-sort, who understood how awkward it could be, trying to pass for normal, living in two different worlds.

"I have to do this," he said quietly. "I mean, he saved me, even after—" Connor stopped. "I hurt him really bad, you know. I thought he'd killed my—Holtz, and I put him in a metal box and sent him to the bottom of the ocean."

Dawn winced. "Ouch."

"Yeah. I figure I owe him one, you know?" Connor sighed, leaning against the wall. "I went to see him the other day, and it was weird. He's my father, but I don't really know him. I figured out that I'll probably never get a chance to know him if he stays at Wolfram and Hart."

"That makes sense," she agreed. Dawn reached over and grabbed his hand impulsively, meaning for it to be a friendly gesture. "If anyone can do it, you can."

Connor just smiled back. It was nice to know someone had that kind of faith in him.