Phone call to Fandom, Tuesday night

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel wasn't looking forward to this, but he needed information. If that meant being yelled at by Parker, so be it.

Angel dialed his Blackberry and braced himself for the worst.

[ooc: for Parker]

Comments

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Don't avoid again. It's so sad and tired at this point." Parker sighed, and sat down on her windowseat, playing with a shoe. She glared in the direction of California, even if it was in the wrong dimension. "Did you even think how this would hit all Cal's friends? That they'd think she'd gone over the edge imagining things?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"No," Angel admitted.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker ground her teeth, and said, "Did you think of a back-up plan, in case, God forbid, you did have one moment of true happiness with Logan? Or were you counting on Cal to be your back-up there?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I would never hurt Logan," Angel said. "I would never let him touch Logan again."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"You wouldn't be here to stop anything. You would be at the Happy Hunting Ground. Tell me how you'd prevent it. Seriously. And keep in mind how much you've been lying lately. And how little credit you've got to trade on with me."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Then really no point in saying anything, is there, Parker?" Angel replied.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"If you've got an answer? Yes." Parker went quiet, fingers tight on the phone. "Do you want to know how much I'd like to believe you had a plan? That it really *was* all okay? That I'm worrying for nothing?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"You trust me or you don't," Angel said. "And for the record there is always a plan if I turn again. Because that is always a danger. Being with Logan changed nothing about that."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I want to trust you." Parker rubbed her temples. "But you lied to me. And your judgment with Cal sucked." She looked out the window, and said, "Am I not allowed to question you, given that? When for all I know, we could have all shown up at the hotel and Angelus would have greeted us?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"You act like Angelus is ever forgotten for me," Angel said. "I am him, Parker. There isn't a single second of my unlife when I forget about him. If anybody else takes time to breathe and calm down about him, great. But I don't."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Then I don't get this," Parker said in frustration. "And I don't forget him! I don't get how you can be so calm about the possibility. Is this risk worth it? You kept saying 'no one, never, I have to be alone' and then I find out you're with Logan, and you've kept it secret...." She closed her eyes, and picked up the shoe, twirling it in her hand.

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Because he asked, Parker," Angel said. "And it's not like Logan's got a laissez-faire attitude about my evil side."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"What?" Parker stared at the phone a moment, then spluttered and put it back to her ear. "You trust Logan's judgment? You think if he's willing to change his gender preference for you, to have sex with you, that he's the person to count on if you go evil?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"One thing at a god damn time, Parker," Angel said. "Logan asked for privacy. He has a right to that. I did not say he was my go-to plan if I turned evil."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Gaaahhhh." Parker finally threw that shoe, then knocked her head backwards against the wall. "Don't scare me like that!" She took a few breaths, then said, "Privacy, okay, fine, whatever, sure. How long were you going to keep being private though? And who *is* your back-up plan?"

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"As long as Logan needed," Angel said. "And I've got people here. People I trust to kill me if I go bad."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"You do? You swear?" Parker closed her eyes in relief and pain. "I just-- you know I hate getting sandbagged. I had this vision, of Angelus coming to Fandom and having to kill him, and...." She sighed. "I would, you know. I wouldn't let you down."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I know, Parker," Angel said, his voice more gentle now. "But Fandom's a long way away. I can't count on anyone there to be the first line of defense."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Good. Good." She just breathed a couple seconds, then had to say, "So. You and Logan."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"If it helps I don't know what he sees in me either."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Oy." Parker facepalmed, and shook her head. "I can guess. Not that my guesses are likely to be anywhere close. Logan's too cagey to read, most of the time. And we already had the conversation about what you see in *him*. I just have to say that after this stunt with Callisto, your taste still sucks."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Cal was wrong, though," Angel said. "She thought it happened sooner. And - uh - more of it."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Like I *want* to know that?" Parker made a face. "And being wrong doesn't make her crazy. You guys, with your 'privacy' which was wholly about Logan's heterosexual freak-out, made it look like she'd gone full-bore nutjob to everyone who knew you three. Congrats, she's almost there now."

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"I'm just saying!" Angel said. "Besides. I told her she had to leave. You should be trilled right now."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker facepalmed. "You told her in such a way that she's going to stay, you inept neanderthal. Did you pay attention at all while you dating her?" She made a face, throwing her other shoe at her bed. "She's being all Greek about this. She watched too many plays by Sophocles when she was little. You've treated her rotten, and now you must pay, and she gets to hurt herself in the process because she loves you, wah. She's behaving very, very badly, but you did set this up." She sighed. "I asked her to come back to Fandom with me. She wouldn't. Do you have a plan for this, smart guy?"