I made Wesley tell me about Angelus when he got back to the hotel and came to check on me. I can't be responsible for bringing that back into the world. He didn't say it, but I could see the fear, the nagging doubts in his eyes.

The selfish part of me doesn't want to go. This is the closest thing I've had to a home in eight years. I don't want to leave it, but I can't shake the feeling that I should.

Fred says Wesley will find a way to give me total control. Cordelia says Angel can deal with another threat to his soul. Gunn says that they can protect me. Wesley says there's a place called Sunnydale where I might be safe. Lorne says I didn't eat enough of my breakfast. Angel didn't say anything. He didn't have to.

I don't want to leave.

* * * * *

{Sun rising.}

"I'm sure I've reached my rescue quota," Hannah said.

"Oh don't worry about it," Cordelia shrugged. "It gives Fred and I a break."

"Cordy!" Fred rebuked her.

"It's all right." Hannah said.

"You don't sound convinced," said Gunn.

"I'm not."

"Look at it this way," said Wesley. "If you stay with us and get kidnapped, we have a much better chance of finding you that if you leave and get kidnapped."

"Thanks Wesley," she replied sardonically.

"You aren't a burden any more than anyone else." Said Angel. "And I have had the threat of Angelus hanging over my head for a century. I can deal."

"Besides," Fred pointed out. "If Wolfram and Hart wanted you so badly, staying with Angel is the best way I can think of to piss them off."

"I'd be more comfortable if we knew what they wanted me for," Hannah said.

"Well, all the hooded guy had on him was a business card, but if he was a lawyer, we can assume that the senior partners have done something nasty to him." Wesley offered. "And we do know that they wanted to take Angel's soul."

"There's probably an apocalypse due," said Cordelia nonchalantly.

"Isn't there always?"

{LA skyline during the day. Hyperion. Lorne tackling the hooded figure.}

He found her in the garden. It wasn't much of a garden, overgrown with weeds and untended for years, but the grass was green, and that was always reassuring. She was sitting on a stone bench that someone had cleared off at some point.

"I'm glad you're staying," he said.

"I think it's more dangerous if I leave," she said. "And it helps if I keep telling myself that."

"Don't think like that," he berated her gently. "Angel can handle himself."

"It's Angelus I'm worried about."

"Look, people don't just show up here. There are forces, good forces who send Angel the help he needs. If you're here, it isn't random chance. There's a purpose."

"That's a little reassuring."

"You'll find your place, Peanut. Everybody does."

"Now you're getting a bit too philosophical for me," she laughed. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"That's true," he agreed. "Can I have a song before bed time?"

"Aren't you sick of that yet?"

"Never."

"Once I thought I'd like to be

A blossom growing on a tree

White and pink and lazy as can be.

But I'd be king, just in the spring

So now I think it over,

Gee, I'm glad I'm no one else,

Gee, I'm glad I'm no one else,

Gee, I'm glad I'm no one else but me!"

* * * * *

I still wasn't, and we both new it as soon as I opened my mouth. But I was getting better.

* * * * *

A.N. 'No One Else But Me' is from Anne of Green Gables.