She leaned into him, her spirit seeming to float on air for the joy that filled her, as she returned his kiss in full. Their bodies were so close that each could feel the beat of the other's heart. His fingers dared to run through the hair that had called bewitchingly to them for years, and the sigh in the back of her throat only served to make him deepen their kiss even more. With words flung aside, their actions sang to each other all the love that each held for the other, love beyond both their wildest imaginations until they had fallen for one another! She loved him, he loved her, and for one moment, that was all that mattered in their world! And then the door exploded.

Or, at least, that's what it looked like had happened when the lovers parted to see Gunn charging into the room with Wesley right at his heels. Lorne and Fred picked their way more carefully through the door, and both grinned when they saw Cordelia wrapped in Angel's loving arms. It took Wesley and Gunn a second longer to catch on to what they had interrupted, and when it dawned on them, their weapons clattered to the floor and their mouths dropped open in shock.

Lorne was the first to speak, and when he did so, a wry grin teased them. "We can show ourselves out, Peaches. You and Angel cakes just go right back to what you were doing."

He winked but then frowned for Angel had released Cordelia at his words as though his hands had been burned. Cordelia stood, looking in shock from the door back to Gunn and Wesley and the weapons at their feet. "Guys, what . . . ?" She shook her head slowly. "You couldn't knock?"

"We thought you were in trouble," Gunn replied.

"So you just automatically knocked down the door?" She quirked a brow at him. "Or did you chop it down with the axe?" And how in the world had she not heard it? She raised a hand to her lips, forgetting for a moment about the pain that shot through her until it flared up her arm. She gasped, then pressed her lips together tightly to keep any more sound from betraying her.

Angel stepped immediately to her side. He reached out to grasp her aching hands and stopped himself a split moment before he could do so. Touching her would hurt her, and that was the absolute last thing he wanted to do.

Wesley pushed his slipping glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. "We thought you were in trouble."

"What would make you think that?"

Fred piped up. "The way Angel left." Her eyes quickly dropped to the floor at the look Angel gave her.

Cordelia sighed, hovering on an edge she hated being trapped on. Should she tell them? Would they think less of her?

"Not gonna happen," Angel whispered beside her, his hot breath blowing against her raven hair and sending delicious tingles through her body.

She glanced sideways at him. How could he be so sure? They had come to her rescue in a hurry. Even Fred had come, and she was surely not a fighter. Cordelia's half-smile lingered between amusement and pity. She doubted the poor girl could fight her way out of a wet paper sack!

Lorne's yellow eyes enveloped his two best friends in their caring gaze. "What's happening, brown eyes?"

"Tell us, Cordy," Fred agreed, daring to raise her eyes to look at them again.

"You know we're here for you, Cordelia," Wesley spoke, "whatever it is."

A sudden flare of anger blew out of Gunn's nostrils. "Who did that?" he seethed through grinding teeth. "I'll cut his damn head off!"

Cordelia smiled sadly. Her friends loved her, and if Angel wasn't going to throw her away because she was useless, they surely would not. "No one, Gunn." She raised her hands for them to see and watched the caring, compassionate expressions fill their faces.

Wesley let out a sharp breath. "Carpal tunnel syndrome." He had seen a case this bad only once before.

"Carpal what?" Gunn questioned.

"A disease that tends to afflict any one who uses their hands and wrists in the same motions too often," Fred replied as though it was obvious. She nodded, "I'll do the computer work."

Lorne's eyes met Cordelia's, and she was struck by the tears she saw glistening therein. "Why didn't you just tell us?"

"Yeah. You don't have to be Queen C with us," Gunn put in.

"We're your friends, Cordelia," Wesley added. "You should have come to us."

"There was nothing you could do, guys . . . " Cordelia's voice broke abruptly off as Fred, who had walked across the room to join Angel and herself, wrapped her thin arms around her. One by one, the men came to join in the hug. Cordelia could not stop her tears from falling as she was embraced by all her friends . . . no, she amended herself silently, her family.

"Anything you need me to do, you just ask." The others agreed quickly with Fred's offer.

"And don't you ever keep anything else like this from us," Wesley threatened, and though he could never pull a threat off quite accurately in Cordelia's eyes, she was nonetheless moved by the loving, caring emotion she saw shining in his dark eyes. She nodded mutely and squeezed them all again.

It was odd, she thought a few minutes later, that they had all filed out quietly after the hug. No one had asked any more questions, though Wesley had said he was going to check on the operation that she already knew was never completely accurate. Every one she had spoken to about the operation said it only worked for a few months, at best, and then the disease came right back.

She looked up at Angel, who was the only one who remained, a strange shyness wanting to claim her. She shook it off. She might never again have to be Queen C, but she was, and always would be, Cordelia Chase, and Cordelia Chase did not do shy! The intent gaze Angel gave her made her breath catch in her throat. Okay, well, most of the time, she didn't do shy . . . "Angel?"

He stepped forward, closing the small gap between them, and cupped her face in his hands. His fingers brushed with feather light touches across her silky hair as he tilted her head to make sure he had her full and complete attention. "Nothing in this world or any other could make me get rid of you, Cordelia."

Relief flooded her soul and lit up her face like a child on Christmas. But, still, there was something more she had to tell him . . . "Angel, I . . . "

He placed a single finger gently upon her lips to silence her. "I'm sorry for being so angry with you, Cordelia . . . "

Her jaw went slack with shock from his admission.

" . . . but the truth is I couldn't think straight. All I could think was that I was going to lose you, and that scared me." He took a deep breath, though he had no need for air, as he stilled himself for what he had finally determined he was going to tell her. "I wouldn't blame you for leaving me. Gods know there's so much more that the outside world can offer you . . . "

She shook her head, her need to correct him finally rising above her desire to hear everything he had to say. She kissed the tip of his finger, then pulled just far enough away from his touch that she could speak. "It doesn't have the number one thing I want," she told him in a hushed voice, her breath tickling his finger. She gazed up into his eyes, wondering for the hundredth time in the last minute if she dared complete what she burned so badly to tell him.

"What do you want, Cordelia?" He had no idea what she was about to say, but he knew it wasn't the answer that he wanted. He wanted her to want him. No, not just to want him. He wanted her to love him for he loved her with all his being and would rather embrace the sun than spend one night without her in his life.

She took a deep breath, then spoke the word in a rush, "You." Her eyes searched his for some sign of acceptance, but she was taken with awe by the rush of relief and happiness that flooded his dark orbs.

He caressed her soft cheek as joy elated his soul. He more than half-expected to lose his happy soul right there on the spot, but, miracle of miracles, Angelus did not show to rear his ugly head. He could hear his voice in his mind, warning him not to get too happy or else he'd be out and the first thing he'd do would be to drain his gorgeous, beloved Cordelia dry. With a silent snarl, Angel told his evil side to shut up and dove head in to the rest of what he had ached for so long to tell this wonderful woman in his arms. "I love you, Cordelia, and I never want to lose you!"

She couldn't help it. She squealed her happiness to the Heavens as her arms flung tightly around him! "I love you too!" He picked her up and spun her through the air, elation filling them both. Their smiles lit their faces with the brilliant radiance of more happiness than either had ever felt before. For once, he didn't dare to question his good fortune, and she didn't care to hide her emotions. Joyful laughter peeled from her luscious lips, and he brought her down, sliding her slowly down his body, so that he could claim those tempting, luscious lips for his own.

As Angel and Cordelia drank deeply of each other in a kiss so passionate that it could never be shown on film for it would have melted the tape, applause erupted from the doorway. They pulled closer into each other, neither caring that their friends were watching, and it was only Lorne's voice, which almost went unheard, that broke them apart. "It's about time!" he exclaimed merrily. "Thank you, Dennis!"

Cordelia and Angel pulled apart just enough that they could chime in with their family, "Thank you, Dennis!", and then returned to the kissing they had waited for too long to do! Had they been able to hear him, they would have heard Dennis whooping his own joy at their happiness as he danced across the ceiling.

The End