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Dangerous	By : addielogan Category: Angel the Series > Het - Male/Female Views: 3801 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Angel: The Series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Anne
was exhausted when she and Angel returned to the hotel, but she didn't even
attempt to sleep. Her body was weary, but her mind wouldn't slow down, wouldn't
stop long enough for her to rest. Instead, she stayed down in the lobby, going
through book after book in search of anything that would make everything seem
less hopeless.
Anne didn't look up when she sensed her
mother come into the room, her eyes trained on the page in front of her. Buffy watched
her for a moment before walking over, sitting beside her daughter on the couch.
"You should rest, honey. You're going to make yourself sick," Buffy
said softly, pushing Anne's hair back behind her ear.
"I can't rest," Anne replied, her
gaze still pointed down. "I can't rest when he's not here, not when I know
what he has to be going through."
"Because if you let yourself rest for
even a moment, that's one more moment he has to spend there�and seeing as it's
a hell dimension, that could be more like several moments, right?"
Anne looked up at her mother then. "Yeah."
"I know it feels that way, but you're
not betraying Connor if you don't push yourself past the breaking point.
Running yourself down only makes it worse. Trust me, I know."
"I can't, I�"
Anne stopped when the door to the Hyperion
opened, smiling slightly when she saw her aunt step in. Buffy stood, facing her
sister. "Dawn�thanks for coming here like this."
"Not a problem," Dawn said.
Angel walked out from his office, stopping
beside the front desk. "Dawn."
"Hey, Angel. Long time, no see," Dawn replied. "Heard
you have a portal that needs opening?"
"Would be nice," Angel said, his hands crossed over his chest.
"What dimension?" Dawn asked.
"Vortairesh," Anne answered.
"But it says in one of these books that it can only be opened once every
hundred years."
Dawn waved her hand. "So
not a problem. If the portal can be accessed from this dimension, then I
can get it open. The trick is going to be making sure Connor's all I pull
out."
"But can you do it?" Angel asked.
"Can you get my son home?"
"Yes," Dawn answered simply.
"When?" Anne asked. "Do we need to wait, or�"
"I can do it now," Dawn said.
"It's better to do it as soon as possible anyway. More of the energy from
the last opening is around that way. Just take me to the spot where he went
in."
"We can do that," Angel replied.
"It's not far from here."
"Good. You and Anne come with me. It'll
help me locate Connor if I have people there close to him," Dawn said.
"Let's go then," Angel said. He started
to walk, then stopped and turned to Buffy. "Could you possibly not tell
Laura, at least until we're back. She'll just make a scene."
Buffy stifled a grin at Angel's obvious
dislike of his soon-to-be-ex daughter-in-law. "Yeah,
sure. She probably won't ask anyway. She's too busy playing the
beleaguered wife."
"Yeah, I'm sure she's just torn up over
the whole thing," Angel muttered. "Come on, Anne, Dawn."
Dawn stopped Anne as she started out the
door, squeezing the teenager's hand. "I can get him out, Annie. I promise
you."
"I trust you, Dawn, it's just�"
"Don't want to hope until it's a done
deal?"
Anne nodded. "Yeah."
"It'll be a done deal soon enough. Come
on."
Dawn let go of Anne's hand and they followed
Angel out.

***
*** ***
"The portal was right�"
"Here, I know," Dawn said, cutting
Angel off as she walked to the spot where Connor had disappeared. "There
might as well be a flashing neon sign that says 'Hell, next right.'" She
took a deep breath. "Okay, both of you come over here."
"What exactly are you going to
do?" Angel asked, eyeing Dawn warily. "I mean, no offense, but I
still think of you as Buffy's kid sister, so�"
Dawn raised an eyebrow in annoyance.
"That was a very long time ago,
Angel. And technically, it never really happened. Besides, I have kids of my
own now. I'm not exactly a child."
"She's powerful, Angel," Anne
said.
"I'm not doubting
that," Angel replied. "I just want to know what you're doing."
"I'm opening the portal. Duh. Were you always this dense? Wait,
scratch that, of course you were." Dawn cracked her knuckles. "All
right, let's pop this thing open. I want you both to think about Connor, form a
clear image of him in your mind. It'll help me locate him if I'm getting
impressions from people with strong emotional ties to him."
Anne and Angel both did as Dawn asked,
closing their eyes and bringing forth an image of Connor to their minds. Dawn
took a deep breath, connecting lighting with her two companions, and, through
them, to Connor himself. She reached her hand out, a green light surrounding it
as she moved it slowly through the air, searching until she found what she was
looking for.
The light around Dawn's hand grew stronger,
traveling down her arm as she pulled at the air until the portal began to open
again, a small sliver of light forming. It grew in size steadily until suddenly, it snapped shut again, sending Dawn across the
room.
"Dammit!" Dawn cursed as she
pulled herself up, dusting off her clothes as she did.
"What happened?" Angel asked.
"Why didn't it work?"
"They have some sort of wards up, the
bastards," Dawn said. "They're serving as extra protection beyond the
time-sensitive nature of the portal itself."
"Can you get through them?" Anne
asked.
"Yeah, I can. It's just going to make
this take a little more time. I have to break them," Dawn replied.
"Angel, do you have any magic supplies back at your hotel?"
"Some," Angel said. "I never
know when I might need them for one thing or another, so I try to keep some on
hand."
"Good. Anything you don't have, I can
find, but it'll save time if I don't have to do a lot of searching."
"Aunt Dawn?"
Dawn turned towards Anne when the girl
spoke. "Yeah?"
"Did�did you feel him at all? Do you
know�?"
"He's alive. I couldn't really get much
more than that, but I could feel him in there," Dawn replied.
Anne let out a deep breath, a small amount
of the tension seeming to leave her body. But hearing Connor was alive still
wasn't enough if he wasn't there with her, and she was still far from relaxing.
"That's�well it isn't completely good because alive doesn't mean he's okay, but it's better."
"He'll be here soon, Anne," Dawn
said. She put her arm around her niece. "I've yet to meet a ward I can't
break. Being the Key gives me an extra push there, too."
"Then let's get what we need to break
the wards," Angel said. "My son's been gone long enough."

***
*** ***
Dawn wasted no time as she walked into the
Hyperion, grabbing a pad of paper and writing down a list of ingredients. Once
finished, she handed it to the vampire. "Angel, this is what I need.
Scrounge it up."
"I'm guessing things didn't go as
planned," Buffy said. "What happened?"
"Wards," Dawn replied.
"Fairly powerful ones, too, but they're not anything I can't handle. Once
I have the supplies I need, I can get them down in ten, fifteen minutes
tops."
Cordelia took the list from Angel, scanning
it quickly. "We do have most of this here. I'll help you get it all,
Angel."
"Thanks," Angel replied, walking
out of the room with Cordelia.
Anne was restless, on edge. She paced back and
forth in the lobby, incapable of sitting still. Her parents and aunt watched
her from the sofa, but said nothing, tension hanging heavily in the silent
room.
Anne stopped when she heard someone coming
down the stairs, frowning when she saw it was Laura and not Angel and Cordelia.
"Laura could you please just�go away."
"I have every right to be involved
in�whatever it is you're doing," Laura replied, waving her hand almost
dismissively as she said the last part. Her eyes trained on Dawn. "And who
is that? She wasn't here
earlier."
"As if it's any of your business,
that's my aunt, Dawn," Anne said.
"So what, you need your whole family
for emotional support?" Laura asked, eyebrow raised.
"And I have to say, they sure are strangely accepting of a teenager being
all starry-eyed over someone clearly
too old for her."
"What our family chooses to do or not
do isn't any of your business," Spike snapped, causing Laura to turn
towards him in surprise. "And how exactly do you think you have the right
to judge my family when you care so
little about your own husband? Sure, my family probably doesn't fit in with
your ideals, but at least we love and support each other, which is clearly more
than I can say for you."
Laura gaped at him for a moment before she
closed her mouth and raised her chin. "Well, I can see where your daughter
gets it from."
"Yeah," Spike replied. "I'm
real proud."
"Why are you even here?" Anne
asked Laura, glaring at the other woman. "You told Connor it was over.
Shouldn't you be off somewhere filing for divorce?"
Laura crossed her hands over her chest.
"I changed my mind. I missed him."
"Yeah, I can see that," Anne said
with a snort.
"I love him, too!" Laura yelled,
making Anne take a step back. "You think I don't, but I do. So no, I don't
understand any of this demon stuff, but that doesn't mean I don't care about
Connor. I've put up with a hell of a lot over the past ten years. Did you know
the first night I spent with him I woke up to the sound of shattering glass as
some sort of horrible monsters crashed in through the window? I'd never seen a
demon in my life, and then suddenly there they are, trying to kill my
boyfriend. But I didn't leave. I learned to deal. When I met Connor, he had no
hope, no future. I gave him a life. He can be normal now."
"But he can't be," Anne countered.
"That isn't who he is. Even if he wanted it, he could never really have
it. The only chance he has at happiness is learning to embrace the world he's a
part of and finding a place in that. If you really
loved him, you'd see that."
"Stop questioning my love for my
husband!" Laura yelled. "I don't need lectures from a home-wrecking
slut. God, how old are
you anyway?"
The room was silent for a moment until Anne
cleared her throat and spoke. "I'm eighteen."
"He's twice your age," Laura
replied, accepting the lie.
""Um, that's one of the weird
things about our family," Spike said, speaking up.
"Age differences under a century really don't raise a lot of
eyebrows."
Laura glanced between Buffy and Spike.
"Huh?"
"He's like a hundred years older than
me," Buffy said.
Laura pointed to Spike then. "Is he a
vampire, too? Like Angel?"
"I am not like Angel!" Spike said
quickly. "Nothing, nothing
like Angel."
Buffy patted her husband's leg.
"Spike's not like Angel. And he's not a vampire�anymore, anyway."
"Anymore?" Laura asked.
"Long
story," Spike replied. "You wouldn't be interested. Lots of 'demon
stuff.'"
"You're all freaks," Laura said.
"I can so see why Connor would
rather be with you people."
"Oi now!" Spike exclaimed. "I've had about enough of you.
You keep being rude to my girls, and I'm going to be forced to rip off your
throat and spit down your neck. Got it?"
Laura took a step back, the look in Spike's
eyes telling her she should take him at his word.
Angel and Cordelia came down the stairs
then, carrying a bag. "We could find everything on the list but two
things," Cordy said. "But they should have them at a store right up
the road. We can get them."
"Great," Dawn said as she stood
up. "Let's get going then. Cordelia, it would help if you came this time,
too. I could use the extra energy."
"Sure, no problem," Cordelia said.
"What's going on?" Laura asked.
"We're pulling Connor out of the hell
dimension he's in�hopefully," Angel replied.
"And was anyone planning on telling me
this?" Laura asked, her question answered by a chorus of "no's"
from the assembled group. "Well, fine," she huffed. "If you find
my husband, just send him back to me." She stormed up the stairs, pushing
past Cordelia and Angel as she did.
Choosing to ignore her, Angel and Cordy
walked down to meet up with Dawn and Anne. "So we're doing this now?"
Angel asked.
"We are," Dawn replied. She
reached out, squeezing Anne's shoulder. "It'll be soon now, sweetie."
Anne pulled her arms tightly across her
chest. "Here's to hoping then."

***
*** ***
Anne
forced herself to stay still as Cordelia and Dawn sat across from each other in
a circle, chanting words Anne didn't understand. Angel was beside her, and she
could feel the tension rolling off of him, seeming to add to her own. She
needed this all to be over, needed to be far away from this place�with Connor.
Angel glanced over at her, seeing the worry
on her features. He fidgeted for a moment, then reached out and put his arm
around her shoulders. Anne stiffened before accepting the comfort, leaning
slightly against him.
Her attention went back to the middle of the
cavern when Dawn stood, announcing, "Wards are
down. Now all I need to do is pop this baby open and get Connor out." She
took a deep breath, her hand glowing green as it had before. Dawn reached out
with eyes closed until she found the right spot, pulling the portal open again.
This time, there was no stopping until the tear was complete, a jagged line of
light creasing the air.
Energy crackled around them, and Anne moved
closer to Angel, her body trembling. He tightened his grip on her shoulder with
an almost-bruising force but she barely seemed to notice, her focus completely
on the portal.
Dawn shouted something loudly in a foreign
language, the energy levels in the room soaring as she did. The portal grew one
more time, the light from it nearly blinding before it closed again, the room
falling silent.
Anne gasped as she saw what lay beneath
where the portal had been. The figure was ragged and unkempt, and her heart
clenched as she whispered, "Connor."
Connor looked up suddenly, his eyes going to
Anne and Angel. He regarded them for only a moment before he snarled, lunging
towards them.

***
*** ***
- 15
- 16
- 17
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Dangerous