Disclaimer: I, of
course, own nothing but my words
Distribution: Just tell me if you want to take it.
Feedback: Feedback is always appreciated.
Spoilers: None
really. Future fic, but AU.
Pretend the last year or so of Angel never happened. Also, the mess with Hoynes
in season 4 of TWW didn't happen
Rating: PG-13
www.angelfire.com/dragon/seeker0
I'm old
enough to be her father. In fact,
she's younger than my daughter.
Mallory was pissed as hell when she found out about us. I hadn't seen
her so mad since she found out that her mother and I were getting a
divorce. I can't really blame her
for being upset. The situation
isn't exactly normal. Mal had to put up with the jokes on late night talk
shows. She had to put up with the
scandal and the tabloids. A daughter shouldn't have to see her father go
through all of that.
No one
else was really happy with him either.
Jed lectured me for a few hours when he found out. Josh actually called me up just to tell him off. CJ hasn't mentioned it, but her husband
has. Toby went nuclear, told me
that I had just killed myself in politics. But I didn't really care. Honestly, I think I was ready to
be done with politics anyway.
It could
have been worse, of course. I could have met her earlier. I could have fallen
in love with her while Bartlet was still in office. That would have been
horrible. I would have missed my
second chance. I couldn't have
pursued a relationship with her then.
A lot of people think I shouldn't even be pursuing one with her now.
But I love
her. She's snobby, and aggravated,
bitchy, and often self-absorbed.
But I love her. I denied it
to myself for a long time. I didn't want to believe I could be attracted to
someone who seemed so wrong for me.
I met
Cordelia Chase at a fundraiser in LA. Hoynes was a year and a half into his
term. I wasn't really doing
anything in politics anymore, just going to functions, and giving the
occasional lecture. Mostly I was
just puttering around at home. I never
imagined that I'd actually be retired. But those eight years at the White House
had taken a lot out of me.
Cordelia
was a guest of one of the parties' biggest contributors. She tells me that she
didn't know who I was when she first started flirting with me. And, God, how
she flirted. I almost laughed when
I first realized what was going on,
I mean, why would a beautiful young woman be flirting with someone more than
twice her age? Of course, that's
not to say I wasn't flattered; I was.
And it's not exactly like I didn't flirt back.
A few
weeks later I was back in L.A, giving a lecture. Afterwards I was at a reception, talking to students and
professors who had attended. I
caught a glimpse of her across the room. I didn't remember her, not right away,
I just knew that I had seen her somewhere before. She turned, and saw me
staring at her. A smile lit up her
face, and then it clicked. I knew where I had seen that smile before.
She
approached me and we began to talk.
She asked me a few questions about my lecture, and we ended up talking
for quite a while. She asked me to come out for dinner, and, despite my better
judgment, I said yes. We
talked for hours, about pretty much everything under the sun.
Late into
the evening, she mentioned that she wasn't from L.A. originally. She told me she was Sunnydale. I recognized the name immediately. She had grown up on the Hellmouth. I probed as gently as I could, and
eventually ascertained that she knew about all of the things that go bump in
the night. I didn't tell her that
I knew about it, not then. It
wasn't until a few months later that I told her she could be completely honest
about her life with me.
She told
me about working for Angel, about her visions, about her battles against
darkness. My Cordelia has many
layers to her. She can be
superficial. She can be mean spirited. She can be more self involved than
anyone I've ever met; which is saying quite a bit, considering I've spent most
of my life in politics. But there
is a lot more to her than that.
She's intelligent, she has depth, and despite everything that has
happened to her, she still keeps fighting the good fight. She has a great capacity for caring. And woe to the man who hurts someone
she loves.
Cordelia
is fiercely loyal. I learned that
when a tabloid reporter came after me.
After everything that the Bartlet administration went through, I've
learned not to let the press get to me.
Cordelia was a different story.
She wanted to go to a friend of hers, and have the reporter cursed. When I stopped her, she decided to take
a different route. I'm still
not entirely sure how she did it, but she got the reporter fired. She's actually gotten a reputation
among the press. Most people are careful not to piss her off to much.
We've been
together for almost a year now.
Despite the age difference, despite the reactions of the people around
us, we're still together. I don't'
know how long it'll last. I still
worry sometimes that she'll decide that she wants someone closer to her own
age. But I love her, and I truly believe that she loves me too.
Even if I
am old enough to be her father.
END
I'm not sure yet, but I might do a companion piece to this, from
Cordy's
point of view.
