Teaser: Lindsey returns to Angel Investigations to find some help, and finds Cordelia instead.
Genre: Cordy/Lindsey
Rating: Pg-13
Spoilers: There's No Place like Plz Grb

~*~

The last time he had sought them out, he had been met with accusations, with hatred and mockery. But they had helped. Eventually, they had seen through the glaring eyes and the Armani suit and they had helped him.

Now, he stood outside, in the boots and the denim, leaning against the rusting old truck and he wondered if now, without the suit, and the money and the hair, they would help him again.

Lindsey McDonald, ex-lawyer, ex-bad guy, and proud owner of the evil hand, had never expected to be back in Los Angeles, and he had never expected to be where he was now, leaning against a car, evil hand and all, standing in front of Angel Investigations.

The hotel was dark and quiet, only one light seemed to be on, and it did NOT look inviting, hopeless or not.

But Lindsey McDonald had nowhere to turn, no connections, none that he was looking to rekindle, anyway, and therefore, had no choice.

Enemies or not, Angel helped people.

And he needed help.

Maybe he could get outta there with one hand, anyway.

Taking a breath, he pushed away, walking quickly, eyes narrowed on the door, because it was a destination, and that was all.

The door, like always, was open, and he pushed forward, walking into the empty, cold, lobby.

"Hello?"

The voice almost echoed in the marble exterior, and the light flickered, throwing shadows over the counter, the one circular couch in the middle of the floor, and the hum of the computer was his only response.

He wasn't sure whether to be happy or relieved that no one was here.

He paused, unsure of what to do. No one was home, and if he stayed… well he didn't want to see the look on Angel's face as he walked into his home to find Lindsey sitting on the couch.

A smirk slid onto his face. Or maybe he did.

Sighing, he turned, about to move to the doorway when sounds of movement made him pause. Turning back, he found himself watching as a young brunette dressed in short slinky shorts, and a barely there tank top, hand on her head, and completely oblivious to him, padded over to the water cooler with bare feet, a bottle of Tylenol in her other hand and a grimace of pain on her face.

Lindsey's eyes narrowed, remembering her, quiet as he watched her. Cordelia Chase, Angel's secretary and seer.

The last time he had encountered the sharp-tongued seer, had been in Caritas, and he had barely seen her, too busy interested in his evil hand to pay attention to the half smile on her gorgeous face.

Now, he had time to look.

"Cordelia?"

The body jerked, the water went flying and Cordelia Chase whirled, nearly knocking over the cooler as she shrieked.

"Hey, relax. It's me."

Her eyes narrowed, a hand slipped back to pull the bangs over her ear and she blinked once or twice. "Lindsey?"

"Hi."

"Why the HELL are you sneaking up to me in MY hotel?" Before he had a chance to answer, she pointed to the door. "Out."

"Are you-"

"Out."

"Cordelia-"

"OUT." She finished the last one with a stamp of her foot. "I don't know if you're playing evil or good now but you're NOT getting your kicks by messing with Angel. We just got him back, so OUT."

"Will you calm down?" he finally snapped, hands in the air, trying appease the pissed off Seer. "I'm not trying to play anything. I need-"

"A kick in the ass. Listen, Lawyer Boy-"

"Ex-Lawyer- what?"

"Just… Get out okay? I'm not in the mood to take your moral crisis crap." She sighed, hand on her head and just grabbed the cup, and refilled it, dismissing him.

When he didn't move, she turned, glaring. "If you're not out in two seconds, I'll call Angel. And he will KICK your ass."

He didn't move, and she slammed the cup down, marching to the counter and picking up the phone. "Cell phone! Now!" Lindsey shifted hesitantly. "Dialing!"

"Cordelia!" He moved quickly to the counter, hands out. "Don't-"

"Don't you DARE touch me," she hissed, and the ex-Lawyer actually paused.

"Now listen-"

"It's ringing!"

"I need help!"

"Yeah what else is new? Still ringing!"

Lindsey didn't quite like this situation. Meeting Angel on his terms was one thing, but the last time he had tangled with the Angel's Seer he had ended up minus one hand. She was a hands off zone, literally.

"It's not for me."

Cordelia's eyes met his, and from the phone, he heard a grainy, "hello?"

Leaning forward, he placed his hands on the counter. "Please. I won't hurt you. I just need help."

"Hello? Cordelia?"

The hazel eyes were astounding clear, but her face was tired, and she looked like she was processing the information. Lindsey had no problem with trying to look sincere, he had perfected the look for the courtroom, all arguments required it.

Figured the one time he actually was, he'd get the last person on earth inclined to believe him.

"Cordelia?" Angel's voice was worried. His eyes flickered to the phone, watching as her grip wavered.

"Please."

Finally she took a breath, and whispered into the phone, "Just checking up. You okay?"

Angel said something, but she answered monotonously and hung up, regarding him with a wary expression in the beautiful face. "You have thirty seconds."

Thank God. "I need help."

"You said that already. Twenty seconds."

"Yeah well, that IS what you do, right? Help people?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Fifteen."

Lindsey took a shaky breath, and nodded. "Okay fine. There's this girl. I was driving down in Bakersfield and this twelve year old girl on the street – she offered me hot sex for fifteen dollars. So I pick her up-"

"You picked her UP?!"

Lindsey paused, startled, until he saw the accusation, and the way she huffed and reached for the phone again.

"No! I wasn't- GOD no. I picked her up because I didn't want-"

"Someone else to get in on the great deal?"

"Will you shut up and let me finish? You think I would pay for cheap sex? I know where to get –"

The eyebrow rose higher, and Lindsey decided this wasn't exactly the best argument to pursue. "I picked her up cause I wanted to help her, okay? So now I'm stuck with this girl in my hotel room-"

The eyebrow only went higher.

"Will you stop! It's not like that. I wanted to help her!"

Again, Cordelia Chase only looked at him, disbelieving and thinking he was utter scum. But when he glared at her, hands smacking against the counter, she finally just said, "What do you want us to do about it?"

"Take her in maybe? I don't know. What the hell am I going to do with her?"

Cordelia pursed her lips, lost in thought, and finally, she sighed, reaching behind the counter and searching for something.

Lindsey watched as she placed a pad on the table, the silence broken only by her etching on the pad. His eyes roved over the hair, the tired eyes, the body revealed by the skimpy clothing. She had been in bed, or was going to bed. Or something.

"So you always dress like that?"

"Like what?" she asked in a flat tone, not looking up.

"Umm… that. With the tank-" It wasn't a very thick tank top. Things were… showing. With no bra. "And the shorts-" Short shorts. And the guys around here WORKED with her like that?

Her eyes flew up, catching his in a glare.

"Are all the guys here gay?"

Again he received the evil death glare, and she just held up a yellow post it. "Call Anne. She takes in runaways."

Lindsey took the paper, the name and phone number giving him a recognition that was a little sickening to his stomach. "Oh."

"Oh?"

He looked at the paper, took a breath, and glanced back at the Seer. "I … know her."

"I know. She told us."

Ah. Okay. So stealing money from a homeless shelter wasn't exactly one of his shining moments, and Cordelia just shook her head, hands shaking slightly as she reached for the bottle of pills. "Okay, I helped you. Leave. And no one's here. I was going to bed."

"Right." Clutching the paper, he shoved it in his pocket, eyes trained with an expert eye of discernment as the Seer trembled, cupped two pills into her mouth, and then chased it with a cup of water. "What's wrong?"

The gruff voice made her stop, and there was something between a choked snort and a laugh as she moved away from the counter, sinking into the soft couch, closing her eyes.

"Like you care."

The complete disgust in the room was too much for even him. With a shake of his head, and a glare at the obviously in pain Seer, he turned, walking to the door.

"What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" he repeated, and suddenly the anger that had surrounded him in spades reached inside and took hold, and his voice, now angry came out loud and harsh. "You're working for a vampire and you're asking ME what's wrong with me? So I made a bad decision, so I haven't exactly been a saint.
You know what? No one fucking cares. So stop making your little judgement calls on me because the person you're working for isn't much better. And in the end it doesn't fucking matter WHAT side you're on."

The rant left him gasping, as he pinned her with a narrowed glare, sucking in his breath and considered storming out, to broaden the effect. But the curiosity in her eyes made his steps falter, as she ran fingers through her hair and got up slowly.

She was quiet, waiting. "Are you done?" Her voice was lilting, slightly patronizing, and Lindsey felt himself once more thrown out of his element as she continued with, "Good. I meant, why the hell didn't you at least say thank you?"

"Oh." The voice was gruff, and he was slightly embarrassed as he finished with, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

More awkward silence, as Cordelia crossed her arms, shifting her bare feet on the marble and finally shivering slightly. "So you still sing?"

That's right. She had heard him sing. "Sometimes."

"You should stop by Caritas before you go. Lorne misses you." He gave her a look of surprise. "Well you know… have you HEARD Angel sing?"

It brought a smile to his mouth, one he wasn't quite sure should be there in the presence of one very taken Seer.

"Yeah well. Thanks again. I'll… get out of here. Don't really wanna see the sick vampire."

"Oh, he won't want to see you either. I'm not kicking my feet up with joy myself, you being evil and trying to kill me and all."

"I'm not evil."

"I know."

"What?"

"I know."

That wasn't an answer he wasn't quite expecting, and he cocked his head, coming closer, digging his hands into the pockets of the cotton lined denim jacket and coming forward. "How do you know?'

"Anyone who gives up a six figure salary and turns into the redneck from hell can't be evil. Just terribly misguided. The suit worked better for you, by the way."

There was almost warmth in her voice, and it made him slightly uncomfortable, for what reason he didn't quite know. "I didn't do it cause I had some moral epiphany. I was pissed off."

"Oh?"

"The bastards gave me an evil hand!"

"That didn't seem to matter when you tried to kill me."

Her gaze was leveled on him, like some judge at a trial, weighing him down, and he took in a breath, unsure why on earth he cared about explaining himself, least of all to Angel's Seer. "Look. I know it doesn't make sense. But I didn't know you then."

"You don't know me now, Lindsey," she finished flatly, and with that stood, holding a hand to her head, walking to the bedroom. "Leave now."

There was a finality in her voice, a sense of judgement. Lindsey McDonald wasn't sure why it mattered. Angel had glared at him with it, women and children had looked at him, the lawyer, with the judgement in their faces. Evil. Scum.

It never mattered.

It never fucking mattered. But when the little Seer said it, when she looked at him like that with those hazel eyes, like he was scum, it mattered.

"He fired you, right? Turned his back on you and turned his back on good and let people die." Her body froze, wavering. "What the hell makes him so different from me?"

She was silent, and she turned, regarding him, before saying in a deadly even tone, "Is that what you think I think? That I compare you to HIM? I'm sorry Lindsey but you're not even in the same LEAGUE. Angel fired me because YOU and your damn lawyers screwed with his head, brought back the queen bitch, and you
know what? It doesn't even matter," she came forward, voice dangerously low, eyes glistening as they bore into his own. "Because when it comes right down to it? You and Angel are NOTHING alike. So GET over it."

"It doesn't make him better. And it doesn't make you better. You don't know me. You can't judge me."

"Why do you care so much?" She shook her head, almost pitying as she said. "Why the hell should you CARE if I judge you or not? Because you know what you are Lindsey?"

"What and you don't think I've never done my homework on you, Cordelia Chase of Sunnydale? Little Miss Rich Girl who's Daddy went and lost all their tax money on a 'cheat the IRS' game? You know he asked Wolfram and Hart to represent him? And we told him, we don't take lose-" The slap across his face caught him full on, stopping the hurtful words, as Cordelia glared at him, eyes watered, pure fury in her face.

"Don't you DARE bring up my past in this. Not my father. NOT Sunnydale."

A smile floated on his lips, wicked and angry and pure lawyer, "Why do you care?"

"Get out."

A furious gaze mingled with a furiously beating heart took in the woman before him, the way she glared at him, the brilliant fire in her eyes and the heaving chest in the skimpy tank top, and unconciously he found himself leaning forward, until her words cut him short.

"You think I don't know you? You think I don't know you Lindsey? Trailer trash, living in some small town with no money and you just wanted it didn't you? All you could think about was getting out, moving away because YOU were meant for something bigger. Sex in the back of that truck out there meant nothing
because you wanted it on leather, on suede, and no girl at home turned you on more than idea of MONEY. So you went to college and here comes Wolfram and HART, and they're big city guys with their money and wallets and snakeskin shoes and so you came to this big city and made your money and you're this big
shot – but all you find is that no ONE cares about you Lindsey, because there's ten guys just like you ready to take your place. And in the end, it's all about money, so much that you're willing to prostitute yourself for it."

There was nothing he could do, nothing he could say as she stepped back, wiping away angry tears, crossing her arms as she said, "You and I aren't that different, Lindsey. I've just never crossed that line. I've never sold myself."

It was all he could take. In two steps he had her, pulling her against him roughly, lips slanting over hers to capture her mouth. For a second, two, her hands were in his hair, her chest was pushing against his and her mouth was moving against his furiously.

But the next instant, she had pushed away, and fingers were now busy pushing back the offending bangs as she said in a dead, flat voice, "Leave, Lindsey. Now."

And his heart was racing, the anger mixed with pleasure and understanding and he finally just swallowed, stepping backward, watching as she waited, and he clutched the little yellow paper in his hand, and he walked away, out of the Hyperion, out of her life.

Sitting in the truck, in the darkness, he wasn't sure why he waited, as the black convertible pulled up and the vampire stepped out, followed by the English guy and the homeless fighter, and some new girl he didn't know and he knew where
they were going.

He knew where Angel would go.

It was the jolt inside of him that made him fumble with his keys, turning the truck on, and veering away from the hotel.

Whether he would ever see her again didn't matter. Whether or not she belonged to Angel didn't matter.

What mattered was she understood.

And at that moment, he knew it would haunt him, for a very long time.

FIN