Who: Angel and Cordelia Chase. Where: Granny's Diner. When: The day of Cordelia's arrival/intro post on the network. (I assume July 15th but that & the time would be up to her!) What: Making sure this isn't some cosmic trick being played on him. Rating/Warnings: PG-13-ish just to be safe? There will probably be talk of character deaths and other violent events from their world. Status: In progress.
He'd stopped being surprised by new arrivals to Storybrooke right around the time Spike got there and things sort of blew up between the two of them and Buffy. After that -- and after nearly (re-)killing Wes in an attempt to ensure someone wasn't impersonating the guy -- Angel figured things couldn't possibly get any weirder. It was all downhill from there, right?
Wrong. Of course. Because this was his life and things never stopped being weird when he was involved.
If Wesley hadn't already been there, Angel would have been sure that Cordelia's appearance was an impostor. The memory of Lindsey assuming Doyle's name was still fresh in his mind, so he was maybe a little oversensitive to that sort of thing these days. But now that he knew his dead friends could show up here, fully alive, he was ready to believe this really was Cordy.
The question was, what form of Cordelia was she? She'd said she remembered Lindsey getting sucked into the hell dimension portal, which had happened at Wolfram & Hart while her body was still technically at the hospital in a coma. Did that mean she was here to kiss him, give him a vision, and disappear again? He wasn't sure he could handle that. Even if she had a new vision for him this time, one that would help him find a way to get everyone back home -- he didn't want to lose her again. It was selfish of him, but he was so tired of losing people he cared about.
Angel had spent some time familiarizing himself with the sewer system here, and while he hadn't memorized every corridor like in LA, he knew it well enough by now to make it to the diner in just a minute or two. (Vampire speed more than compensated for the occasional wrong turn.) He emerged from underground in a back alley and came around the side of the building that wasn't facing the sun, staying in the shadow of the roof overhang once he got to the front porch.
Which was where he saw Cordelia, and his stomach felt like it was twisting inside out. At least this time, if she was off in a coma somewhere, about to die, he'd know it. He'd say the things she hadn't let him say the last time. He wouldn't waste this opportunity.
"Cordy." He stepped in for a hug immediately, tightening his arms around her as much as her human body could bear. "I never thought I'd see you again." If she had been sent here by the Powers That Be, she'd already know what he was talking about. If she hadn't, then that probably wasn't the best thing to lead with, but he couldn't help it.