Kate Lockley sat at her desk with her head in her hands.
Dad is dead. Dad is dead and its all Angel's fault.
Damn him! Damn them all!
Why can't things go back to the way they were. Before. Before I found out.
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.
"Detective Lockley?"
Kate looked up and saw Kendrick standing by her desk. This was the guy who called her Scully.
Idiot. If anything I'm Mulder. Damn them for making me Mulder!
"Is everything alright?" He asked worried.
"I'm fine." Kate lied.
"Umn yeah." He paused, "I'm sorry about your father. He was a good cop."
Kate didn't say anything. She just looked at him with blank eyes.
After a few moments he walked away shaking his head. She was loosing it big time. Everyone knew it. Ever since she had begun taking the weird cases she had drifted from the fold. She was an outsider now.
Everyone knew it.
Kate watched Kendrick walk away and then attempted to work on the case she had been given. It was another of the weird cases. Ever since she had met Angel she had been given all the cases no one else could solve. At first solving the cases had put her on the fast track to her own command but lately.....
Damn him! Damn them all!
Kate hated the Angel Detective Agency. She hated them with a passion.
I'm going to make them pay.
Suddenly Kate felt alot better. She looked at the contents of the
folder and smiled.
"How's Detective Lockley doing?" Wesley asked Angel.
"Not good Wes." Angel went to the refrigerator and took out a packet of blood, "She's not taking her father's death very well."
"She's doing a major Faith." Cordelia said in her usual tactlessness.
Angel and Wesley just glared at her.
"Well she is." Cordelia sulked.
"I hate to say this, but Cordelia's right." Wesley said sadly.
Angel just paused for a moment and took a swig of the blood, "I know."
"What are we going to do about it?"
"Why should we do anything?" Cordelia asked.
Wesley turned to Cordelia, "Because it's our fault. Before we came to town, Detective Lockley had a relativly normal life. We shot it all to bloody hell."
Cordelia didn't think of that. It really didn't surprise her but it saddended her. Cordelia knew how Detective Locklet felt.
Was that just empathy. Wow! New experience.
"Maybe I should talk to her." Cordelia said before she knew what she was saying.
Angel and Wesley looked at her astonished.
"What?" Cordelia asked hurt, "I think I'm the perfect person to talk to her. You Angel your a vampire. Have been for what is it two hundred years. And you Wesley, you're a watcher. Not a very good one, but your a watcher all the same."
"What's your point, Cordelia?"
"My point is, neither of you know how it feels to suddenly be hit over the head with the truth. I do." Cordelia paused, "I'm not partcularly in any hurry to talk bump in the night with lady cop but I'm the only one who can."
Wesley paused and looked at Angel, "She's right you know."
"I know."
Cordelia walked to Kate's apartment door and then paused. She had everything she was going to say in her head but now it all sounded stupid. She had no clue how to talk to Kate. Being kind and supportive was new to her.
Oh well, there's a first time for everything.
Cordelia knocked on the door and waited.
"Go away!"
"It's Cordelia."
"Go away!"
Oh great. Now what?"
"We need to talk."
Cordelia heard footsteps so she waited. When the door opened Cordelia was shocked and nothing had shocked Cordelia Chase in a long time. Kate was a mess. Her hair was tattered and her clothes were worse. The apartment was dark.
"What do you want?" Kate asked angrily.
"Can I come in?"
Kate opened the door and let Cordelia in. Cordelia paused only a moment before she crossed the threshold.
"What do you want?" Kate asked again.
"I wanted to talk." Cordelia said trying to adjust her eyes to the dark. "Can you turn on a light or something?"
Kate paused for a moment and then turned on a light.
"About what?"
"Angel."
"We have nothing to talk about."
"Yes we do." Cordelia paused, "I know about your father."
"Don't you EVER mention him again." Kate yelled angrily, "You don't understand."
"I think I'm the only one who does understand." Cordelia shouted, "You have NO idea who I was before I found out about vampires and the other things. I was Queen C. I ruled Sunnydale High. I was Sunnydale Highschool. I had a rich family. I was popular. I was Cordelia Chase. I had the world at my fingertips. Then I found out about vampires and I lost it all. Suddenly I was dating Xander 'King of the Cretins' Harris, I lost all my friends. The money was gone. My God Detective. You think no one understands. Well I do understand. So snap out of it. Your father's dead, and there's not a God Damn thing you can do about it. You can either accept what you know is the truth or go insane."
Cordelia stopped yelling and saw Kate look at her with angry eyes. She only paused a moment before she opened the door and left. She didn't see Kate fall to the floor and begin to cry.
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.
The next evening Cordelia found herself back at Detective Lockley's door. She really wasn't sure why she was there or why she even cared about the Detective but she did. That worried her a little. Cordelia Chase didn't care about anyone but herself.
Cordelia knocked at the door fully expecting a confrontation. Kate opened the door, "What do you want?"
"I'm taking you out for a walk."
"What?"
"We're going out so get dressed."
Kate laughed under her breath but said nothing.
This girl has guts. I'll give her that.
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.
Kate walked to her bedroom and got dressed. She didn't know why she was listening to Cordelia but there was something about the girl. After a few minutes she was ready to go.
"Where are we going?"
"Out." Cordelia paused, "Now follow me."
Cordelia and Kate walked through the city until they came to one of the cities graveyards. Kate paused for a moment as Cordelia walked in.
Where is she taking me?
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.
"Come on Detective. You aren't scared of a graveyard are you?"
Kate followed Cordelia through the grave yard. After a few minutes Cordelia stopped walking. Kate looked at the tombstone. The marker said the young man had died the night before.
"He's going to rise tonight." Cordelia paused, "You're going to kill him."
"What?" Kate asked horrified.
Cordelia handed Kate a stake and then took on out for herself.
"Consider it a cheap form of therapy."
Cordelia stepped back far enough so that she wouldn't be noticed when the vampire arose. Cordelia had every intention of getting involved if Kate had any trouble. The morning before Cordelia had hacked into the local morgue to see if anyone had died of "puncture wounds and loss of blood." Willow's computer lessons had finally paid off.
After a few minutes of waiting Cordelia heard a sound but she remaind quiet. This was Kate's fight.
Suddenly a vampire clawed his way to the surface. Cordelia watched as Kate looked on horrified. She didn't move. She didn't react. She just stood there, watching. When the vampire was out of the grave he looked at Kate and smiled a wicked grin and then attacked.
Kate tried to fight him off but she had no luck. Cordelia looked on worried. If things got any farther, Cordelia knew she would have to get involve and that would just make things worse. This plan had been a long shot and if it failed....
Finnally Kate connected with a blow and the vampire stumbled back a bit. Kate was still on the ground but Cordelia saw that she had picked up the stake.
Good Detective.
Cordelia watched as Kate kicked the vampire in his most private of areas and smiled.
Oooh that had to hurt.
Cordelia watched as Kate then kicked the vampire in the stomach and watched as he went down to the ground.
Stake him.
Cordelia watched as Kate held the stake high in the air and then bring it down right to where the vampires cold dead heart was. Cordelia watched as the vampire turned to dust.
Cordelia then watched as Kate looked horrified at the dust that had once been a vampire layed on the grass. Cordelia watched as Kate began to cry.
Cordelia had never been one for sympathy but this was different. This was Detective Lockley. Cordelia didn't know why she cared so much but she did. She walked to the Detective and put her hand on her shoulder. "Why?"
"Why what, Detective."
"Why do there have to be vampires."
"Because there are." Cordelia said simply.
"Why did they have to kill my father?" Kate asked almost childlike
"Because they did."
"I hate them." Kate continued to cry, "They destroyed my life."
"I know."
"Why can't things just go back to the way they were?"
"Because they can't."
Kate looked up at Cordelia, still crying, and Cordelia did something she had never done in her entire life. She crouched down and pulled Kate into her arms and they stayed like that until Kate had finished crying. They stayed like that for a long long time.
The next morning Kate walked into the police station feeling better. She noticed the stares but she didn't care. Something had changed inside of there when she staked that vampire. The anger and the hate had left her. She sat at her desk and pulled out a file. There had been a little girl who had disapeared under misterious circumstances. It looked like a nice normal case, but Kate knew better. This had "otherworldly" written all over it.
"Well if it isn't Spooky Mulder." Kendrick said arrogantly.
"Yes I'm back." Kate smiled, "And thank you for calling me by my correct name. I mean calling me Scully. Could you be more dense."
As Kendrick walked away annoyed, Kate smiled. She did feel better.
I'll have to thank Cordelia.