Have a Little Faith

Chapter 33

Alex loved the view from her office.  She could see every new and old face that entered.  She had never needed a secretary before, although Cordelia was barely a secretary.  Half the time Alex had to answer her own phones.  Cordelia was at least aggressive when collecting money.

Alex’s view allowed her to greet new clients as soon as they came through the door.  This time it was someone she knew.  Cordelia and Lindsey had returned from their honeymoon looking more in love than when they left.  Alex was happy for the two of them.  Lindsey had begun to let go of his past.  Cordelia’s nasty edge had nearly disappeared.

“Hi!” Lindsey yelled out.  “We’re back.”

Alex hesitated for a moment, then came out of her office.  She looked over the couple and smiled before she spoke.  “Well, well, well, Mister and missus McDonald, what a pleasant surprise.”

Cordelia laughed, although it was not funny. She just liked the idea of being Mrs. McDonald.

“How was the honeymoon?” Alex asked and smiled again.

“Very cold, no snow at all,” Lindsey replied, “Not that I expect much snow in April,” he smiled. “But there was plenty of warm snuggling.”  Cordelia jabbed him with the edge of her suitcase.

“Ow,” he said and rubbed his arm.  Cordelia smiled to show she was just kidding.  “Anyway, let me get this crap upstairs,” he said.  “I’ll be right down and tell you all about it.”  He took the suitcases from Cordelia and headed upstairs.

“So how is he?” Alex asked when she was satisfied that Lindsey could no longer hear them.

Cordelia smiled.  She instead waited until he had entered through the door of the apartment before responding.  She picked up Lindsey’s guitar case and balanced herself against it. “Lindsey?  He’s doing so much better.” She looked at the ground. “He only had a few nightmares while we were there.  A lot less than what he had the week before.  So I guess he’s getting better.”  She smiled and moved the case back and forth.  “He sang to me a lot.  I couldn’t believe he knew how to sing and play the guitar.  Wasn’t he amazing at the wedding?”

Alex nodded. “He’s wonderful.  It looks like he’ll be singing more often.”

“I guess that means he’s getting better.”

“He’s strong,” Alex replied.  “He made it through all those months with Angelus.  He’s a survivor.”

“So anything interesting happen while we were gone?” she said anxious to get off the subject of Lindsey’s pain.

“Oh,” Alex said and smiled. Though she did have some bad news for them.  She thought it would be best to give them good news first. “Same old, same old, Doyle got visions, Faith fought the forces of darkness, um—Wesley and I going out, and most importantly trying to stop Angelus--”

“Get out of here,” Cordelia said and laughed.  “You and Wesley? That’s so cool, you are like both so knowledgeable.”

“Thank you,” Alex said and made a strange face.

“That’s great, no really.” Cordelia said and smiled.  “I’m happy for the both of you.”

“Thank you,” she repeated.

“Anyway, what about the gem thing?  You have it?”

“It’s in your apartment.  We decided to let Angelus take the fake.  Let him try to figure out where it was switched.”

Cordelia smiled.  “We’ll get his soul back.  I can feel it and we’ll never have to live in fear again.”  Their conversation ended when the door to the apartment opened and Lindsey came back in.

He looked around the empty office. “So where is everyone?”

“Faith went out on one of Doyle’s visions.  Doyle is probably in the pub, Wesley is at home and Gunn. Well, who knows.”

Lindsey smiled.  He put his arms around his wife.

“Guess what, hon,” Cordelia said.  “Wesley and Alex are going out.  Can you believe it?”

“Great,” he replied.  “I guess judging by our relationship, you two will be married next week.”

Alex laughed, then turned red.  When her laughing fit ended, her face softened. She could not put off telling them the bad news.  She took a deep breath. “And um—something else happened.” Her smile turned to sadness.

“What?” Cordelia said, concerned.  “Is everyone okay?  Angelus didn’t hurt anyone, did he?”

“Kate’s father died.”

“What?” Lindsey said, shock.  “What happened?”

“It—It might have been vampires.  Probably not Angelus.  The police said it was a robbery, that his throat was cut, but Kate found the body; there were two puncture marks--  The police—They think he was on the take or something.  They found a lot of unaccountable money.”

“Oh god,” Lindsey said.  “Poor Kate.”  He looked down. “How is she holding up?”

“As best as can be expected.  Her father was her only living relative.”

“Kate’s not in trouble?” Lindsey asked.  “They didn’t think that she was on the take?”

Alex shook her head.

Lindsey looked down.  Corruption could get anywhere.
 

“Married?” Angelus said in completely shock.

“Married,” Lee said, holding up a piece of fax paper.  “One of my informants faxed me the license this morning.”

“Mrs. Cordelia McDonald?  Now that’s frightening.” Then Angelus smiled.  “Of course maybe I will kill her before I kill him.”

“The gem,” Penn said, anxious to get away of the discussion of Lindsey and his subsequent betrayal.  Penn had been the one to torture Lindsey before they used him for bait.  He wished that he had him longer than just a few hours.   He could have wrecked that smug face.

“In and out in five minutes,” Angelus said.  “Then they will never know what hit them.”
 

“Are you sure that’s the right thing to do?” Lindsey asked.  Alex had just explained that they had planned to not do anything to stop Angelus from stealing the gem.

“If Angelus spots us, then he’ll know we have the gem.  If we let him steal it, he may try his spell and fail.  It could take months before he figures out we have it.  That’s a few more months for us to find the curse,” Alex explained.

“Have you spoken to Lina?”

Alex nodded.  “She said she asked her grandmother for anything that belonged to Jenny or her uncle.”

“And what did her grandmother say?”

“Essentially no, but Lina says that if it exists, she’ll find it.  She says she has a knack for these things.”

“I know,” Lindsey replied.   “I did meet her when she was in jail for car theft remember?”

Alex smiled. “Oh yes.”

“God—I can’t believe it about Kate’s father.  Hon,” he said, looking over his wife.  “We should go see her.”

Cordelia nodded.

“Oh, yeah, Cordelia, I almost forgot. Someone called for you yesterday.  Someone named Harmony Kendall.”

Cordelia frowned.

“Bad news, hon?” Lindsey asked.

“Just an old classmate,” she said and put on a fake smile, but Lindsey could tell she did not want to deal with this person.

“Well, I told her you were on vacation and would be back today.  She says she’ll be in LA until next Friday and would love to see you.  I have the number at the hotel she’s staying at.  Since you’ve been keeping your marriage a secret from your family, I didn’t tell her you were on your honeymoon.”

“Okay,” Cordelia said and frowned.

“Shortcake!” a voice yelled out.  Faith had entered the office.  She ran over to her friend and nearly knocked him over with a tight hug.  “So when you two get back in town?”

“A little while ago,” Lindsey replied.  “How have you been holding up without us?”

“Could not live without you.  For god sakes, you went away and Alex and Wesley started dating.  Can you believe it?  I always thought Wesley was incapable of dating.  That he was a robot or something or it had been removed from British genes or something.”

Lindsey laughed.  It felt good.  For the first time in a long time, he felt really happy.

“No, we all missed you.  So did Angelus, just yesterday we were having tea and crackers and he remarked how much he missed you fucking him over.  He said he loved for you to give him a soul.”

Lindsey laughed again.  It was not that funny, but it brought tears to his eyes.

While Faith and Lindsey were talking, Cordelia went to the phone in Lindsey’s office because it gave her some privacy.  She should not be doing this.  Harmony had been a completely and utter bitch to her: about dating Xander, about her parents losing their money, but oddly enough she was curious on why Harmony decided to call her.  Sometimes she missed her whole high school days of being on the edge.  Being poor and meeting Lindsey had made her more humble.  She had learned there were people who had things worse off in life.

She dialed the number to the hotel.  Harmony wasn’t there, but she decided to leave a message.
 

“Now that the honeymoon’s over,” Faith said.  “Soon she’s gonna be throwing pots and pans at you.  That might be the only way to get her to touch a pot.”  Alex had left them alone and returned to her office.

Lindsey laughed. “I know how to cook.  And Cordelia—Well,” he smiled.  ”She tries.”

“Thank god or you’ll starve,” Faith said and smiled at him.

Lindsey laughed again.  “It’s good to be back.  I’m feeling better.”

“Are you?” Faith could not help but stare at the red line down his cheek.  She knew she should not.

He nodded.  “I know that what happen to me will stay with me for a long time,” he admitted.  “I can still feel the rope around my neck sometimes, but I’ll get through it thanks to Cordelia’s love and your strength.”

Faith smiled.  “Well I am strong.”

Lindsey chucked.  “I wasn’t talking about your physical strength.”

“I know.”

“So who is this Harmony?” he asked, eager to change the subject.  He liked to think of Angelus as little as possible.

“Oh some phony rich girl that Cordelia knew in High School.”

“Hearing her name seem to upset her.”

“Cordelia was a popular chick in high school,” Faith explained.  “And she gave that up by dating Xander.  Harmony kind of took her spot and teased her a lot.”

“She shouldn’t be bothered by that.  She’s not in high school any more.”

“Sometimes it’s hard not to be bothered,” Faith said and smiled.  “Sometimes it’s hard to let go of the past.”

She was interrupted by her cell phone ringing.  She smiled.  “I guess it isn’t you.” She pulled the cell phone out.  “Yeah.  Hey, okay, where?  Be there in a flash.” She hung the phone up and put it back in her pocket.  “That was Doyle.  He got a vision.  I gotta go.”

“Need some help?”

“Nope, sounds like a one person job.  You stay home and play nicey with your wife.”

Lindsey smiled.  “That I will certainly do.”
 

“Where’s Faith?” Cordelia asked when she came out of Lindsey’s office.  For some reason she looked distressed.

“Doyle, vision.  What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said and looked down.

“Cordelia, I know you.  What’s bothering you?  Who’s Harmony?”

“She was just a classmate from high school.  We were friends.  She probably just wanted to get together.”

“Faith said she used to tease you.”

“A little, but that happens a lot in high school.”

“Cordy—“

“All right,” she admitted.  “She made my life miserable when I decided to go out with Xander and then she made my life even more miserable when Xander broke up with me and then when you can think that you can’t be even more miserable, she found out my parents lost all their money.”

“So why should you care if she’s in town?”

“Kind of just missed high school,” she sat down by her desk.  “Lindsey, I love you.”

“I know.  I love you too.”

“But I miss having everything.  Working with you, loving you.  It’s wonderful, but sometimes I miss it.  Sometimes I miss being the certain of attention.”

“You’re my center of attention.”

“I meant popular—important.”

“Cordy—“

“I know—there are a million other people in this world and I can’t be the center of everyone’s attention.  But, well, I kind of called her.  I left a message that we should hang out.”

“You didn’t have to.  I bet you won’t miss your old life at all.  Just like I don’t miss mine.”

“I know,” she admitted.  “I should make it seem like I don’t want to give her the time of day, but well—I wanted to show you off.”

 Lindsey laughed though he knew it was wrong.

“You are like the best thing to happen to me,” she said putting her arms around him. “You are worthy to be shown off.”

Lindsey pulled her close and kissed her.  “You are the best thing to happen to me too,” he whispered in her ear.  “And we never need to prove that to anyone.”

“Maybe she won’t call back,” she said and kissed him.
 

“The bait has been taken,” Faith said, smiled and placed the newspaper on Lindsey’s desk.   Lindsey looked at the paper.  “Rare gem stolen: Police baffled, no witnesses.”

“Thank god no one was hurt,” he said, scanning the article.  He gave the paper back to Faith when he was finished.

“I think they must have known something about the alarm systems,” she said.  “The police didn’t find a trace of anyone.”

“Lee has friends in high and low places,” Lindsey explained.

“Whatever, Angelus’ got the fake, no one got hurt and Angelus can wonder for eternity where the original gem went.  Let’s hope that he does.”

They were interrupted with a woman entered the front room.  The woman had bright blond hair and was wearing expensive clothes.

“Yeah?” Faith said.

Lindsey gave a sharp looked to Faith.  He got up and smiled.  “Hello, can I help you?”

Faith realized she recognized the woman.   The woman gave Faith the once over, seemed to sort of recognize her, but did not seem sure.  Faith had never been formerly introduced to her.  When Lindsey saw that she recognized her, he realized this was the famous Harmony Kendall.   Harmony had called about hour after Cordelia had hoped she would not call back.

“Yes,” she said, “Hi, I’m looking for Cordelia Chase?”

Lindsey smiled at her.  Harmony smiled back.

“Hi,” she said and smiled again at him.

“Excuse me,” Faith said.  “Gotta run.  Duty calls.”  She ran to the door, glad that Harmony did not recognize her.

Lindsey watched her go and he was going to kill her when she got back.

“I think I seen that chick before,” Harmony said, then she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to Lindsey.

“Hi, I’m Lindsey McDonald,” he said offering her his hand.  She took it and did not let go of it right away.

“Oh, hello.  I’m Harmony Kendall.  You’re the Lindsey McDonald listed on the doorway?” she asked.

“That’s me.  You must be Cordy’s friend?” he smiled and nearly yanked his hand away.  “I heard a lot about you.”  He did not mention that none of it was good.

“Yes,” she said.  “Do you mind if I call you Lindsey, since you seem so informal around here?”

“Sure,” he replied.  “Harmony.”  Now he wished Faith had not disappeared so quickly.  This might have been an interesting show.  “Let me go call upstairs and see if Cordy’s ready.”

Harmony smiled.  “So Cordelia lives upstairs from where she works?”

Lindsey nodded and picked up the phone and dialed the apartment.  Cordelia picked up on the first ring.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” he replied.

“Just calling to hear my voice?  I’m only 20 feet away and I can be naked in five minutes.”

Lindsey smiled.  “That would be nice, but I actually called you to tell you that Harmony is here.”

“Harmony,” she asked.  “Linds, hon, give me 20 minutes.”

“You got it. See you.”

“Yeah,” she said.  “Love you.”

“Me too.” Lindsey hung up the phone.  He turned back to Harmony.

“She’ll be down in a little bit, just putting on her face.”

“That should take a while actually,” Harmony said and smiled.  Lindsey smiled back.  He could tell she was flirting with him.  That made him decided to be a little vengeful for Cordelia’s sake.

“Oh, it must be interesting being a lawyer.”

“Oh, it has it’s ups and downs,” he said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.  He looked away and for a brief moment thought of his time with Angelus.

“And you share your office with a private investigator.  Oh, it must be very exciting,” she said, completely oblivious.

“Yes, extremely.”

“So Cordelia, she’s like the secretary here, right?  Uh, I’m sorry, it’s administrative assistant these days.”

“Cordelia is extremely helpful in all our cases.  Harmony, why don’t you sit down and get more comfortable.”  He showed her to the inner office and the couch.  She sat down, smiled at Lindsey, pulled her skirt up slightly, and crossed her legs.  “Would you like some coffee?”

“Oh, I’d love some.” Lindsey went into the little room by the window they used for food.  There was a small fridge and a coffee machine.

“Milk? Sugar.”

“Two teaspoons please.”

Lindsey scooped the two sugars and some milk in.  He brought the coffee back to Harmony.

“So I can’t believe you want to spend time with me when I bet you have a load of cases to work on.”

“I’m not inhospitable,” he replied and he actually had no cases to work on.  “So is this your first time in LA?”

“Actually,” she said.  “It is.  Most of my vacations are spent in Europe, I just spent the last 8 months in Paris.  Now I thought I would come back and go to College.  I’ve been thinking of UCLA this fall.”

“Good schools,” he said.  “I went to law school at Hastings.”  Harmony looked a little puzzled.  “Hastings Law School in San Francisco.”

“Oh so you aren’t from LA?  I thought I heard an accent.  It sounds very sweet.”

“I’ve been here for the past 5 years.  I was born in Oklahoma.”

“Just like the musical.”

Lindsey made a funny face.

“I was kind of hoping someone would show me around LA.  Where a good place to live is.”

“Well, I think Cordelia could do that.”

“Oh, yes,” Harmony said and smiled.  “She’s been here since when June?  And she lives downtown.  She must be have to be thrifty.”

“I think she left right after high school.”

“Oh, it was so tragic about her parents losing all their money.  She couldn’t go to college and I heard that her ex-boyfriend had to buy her prom dress.”

“Really,” Lindsey said.  “Must have been a nice guy.”

“Xander Harris, ew.  I wouldn’t accept anything from him even if I was homeless and on the streets.”

“That bad?”

“Cordelia used to be the queen until she met that loser.  Now she’s not going to school, she doesn’t travel and she’s some office manager.”

“I think she might go to school in the fall,” he said, reminding himself to talk it over with her.  He would have enough money  for her to at least go to a public college.

“But anyway enough about her.  Tell me about yourself.  A lawyer—Wow.”

“It isn’t that difficult to become one.  Actually,” he said.  “It really does suck.  Especially when you like to be honest.”

“Oh, you’re just teasing me.”

Lindsey smiled.

“I love honest guys.  They are so cool.  So like what do you do, what kind of cases do you do?”

“Anything that happens to come my way and I’m Alexandria Taylor’s legal expert.”

“Sounds fascinating.  Maybe we could discuss it say over coffee?”

“You mean the three of us?”

“Three?”

“Yes. You, me and Cordelia.”

“Oh, no,” Harmony said.  “We can go out the three of us, but I thought I don’t know anyone in town and I thought that maybe you and I—“

She stopped when saw Cordelia come through the door.  “Oh Cordelia, hi.”

“Oh hi, Harmony.”  Both Harmony and Lindsey got up.  Cordelia went over to Harmony and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  There was nothing real about the kiss.  They weren’t friends, but rivals.

“I hope you don’t mind Lindsey and I were just talking.”

“Yes,” he smiled.  “About having coffee.”

Cordelia looked at her husband and then at Harmony.  Lindsey had a smirk on his face that reeked of heavy sarcasm.  Harmony had obvious made a play for him, but Cordelia was not sure if Lindsey had told her the truth or not.  She did not think he did, since he did not tell her he loved her on the telephone.

“Yes,” Harmony said.  “You’re single right?” she said to Lindsey.

Cordelia then went over to Lindsey and gave him a full tongue kiss. Their lips unlocked about a minute later.  “Hon. It looks like you’ve been a good host.”

“Yes,” Lindsey replied and smiled and put his arm around her.  “Harmony is fun company.”

“Oh, I thought that--  I didn’t know you two were going out.”

“Well, we really don’t go out anymore,” Cordelia said, holding up her wedding ring.  “Except in the physical sense.”

“Oh,” Harmony said and Lindsey could tell she was crushed, but Lindsey could tell Cordelia needed to start ahead of the game.  “How long?”

“For almost three blissful weeks,” she said and gave Lindsey another huge kiss.

“Oh,” Harmony repeated.

“Hon,” Lindsey said. “Harmony was mentioning how all three of us should go for coffee, but I think we should make it a foursome.  I have a very attractive friend.  Would you be interested?”

“Oh, um—I kind of have a boyfriend in Paris.  What does he do?”

“He’s a PI just like Alex.”

“Oh,” Harmony said and perked up a bit.  “The more the merrier.”
 

“So,” Doyle said, downing his second beer and burped.  “What do you do for a living Harmony?”

“Oh,” Harmony said, looking uncomfortable.  “A living?”

“Yes.  How do you make money?”  He asked.

Harmony looked away from him for a moment to Lindsey and Cordelia who were slowly making out. She frowned then looked back to Doyle.

“Oh,” she said.  “This and that.”

“That’s good,” Doyle said.

“So what did you say your name was Francis, Frank, Allen?”

“Nope, they call me Doyle.”

“Oh, Doyle.  So you’re from Ireland?  I was there once. Very beautiful country, lots of sheep.”

“Yep,” he said and.  “Absolutely pagan country.  One night me and brothers—this is just between you and me sweetheart.  It was Beltane and we took off all our clothes and worshipped the—um—Lindsey who’s that pagan god?”

Lindsey unlocked his lips from Cordelia for a moment. “Snugglebrat.”

“Yeah-- yeah, that was it.”

“Oh, yes,” Harmony said, looking at her food.  “Pagan.”

“They say they used to burn pagans at the stake,” Doyle said.  “That must have been bloody awful.”
Suddenly he held his head and cried out.  He had his demon face on.

“Vision!” Lindsey yelled out and ran over to Doyle to stop him from falling.

“Oh god!” Harmony yelled out and got up. “You guys are such freaks.  I thought this was over in Sunnydale.  Goodbye, Cordelia.  Enjoy your creepo husband—“

“Hey!” Cordelia cried out and stood up and got into Harmony’s face.  “You’re just jealous cause you can’t find a man like this, you stuck up bitch.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Doyle said, still wearing his demon face.  He got up and put his arm around her.  “We’re better than them, baby.  They’re just jealous.”

“Ew—“ Harmony said, pushing him away.  She ran out of the restaurant.

“Hey, Baby!” Doyle shouted.  “We were made for each other!”

“Be sure to stay in touch, Harm—“ Cordelia said and waved, although Harmony was long gone.

Doyle regained himself, went back into human form, then smiled.  He sat down.  “That usually takes care of problematic blind dates.”

“So you really didn’t have a vision?” Lindsey asked.  A smile crossed his face.

Doyle shook his head.  “Cordelia, you should not be wasting your time with such people, doll.  You are much better than them.”

Part 34

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