Angelo and Amanda; Angelo and Meggan

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Angelo visits while Meggan's sleeping, and he and Amanda talk about her abduction and Amanda's fears



There was a knock at the suite door, sometime after Meggan had gone to bed. When Amanda opened it, Angelo was outside, leaning casually against the wall with his hands in his pockets. "Hey, little sis."

"Hey." Amanda's smile was tired, but genuine. "Meg's asleep - she's still catchin' up after..." She let it trail off awkwardly. "Come in? Was just catchin' a smoke." She gestured to the open window with a shamefaced look. "Didn't want t' leave her, but I was really hangin' out for one."

He produced his own cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket with a half-grin. "Sure thing. How's she doin'?"

"Not too bad." Amanda closed the door behind him as he came in, and checked to make sure both her bedroom and Marie-Ange's doors were closed as well - she didn't want to make the whole place reek. "She wouldn't sleep without me there, which figures, but she dropped off all right with me readin' to her." Angelo joined her at the window and she took a cigarette from the offered pack, accepting a light. "She's in better shape than I was."

"Little kids bounce back fast", Angelo said quietly. "She's home, she's safe, so she won't be worryin' about it for too long. She told you anythin' about what happened?"

"Some - she was drugged for some of it an' had a bag over her head for the rest. But she was able t' tell me all 'bout this nice friendly man with an Irish accent an' only one hand." Meggan had mimicked the vocal tones perfectly. "Patches." The name was ground out between clenched teeth.

Angelo looked at her sharply, expression cold. "Fuck. Him again. Why am I not surprised?"

"Maybe you weren't, but I was," Amanda replied darkly. "I s'pose he figured Pete joinin'... not bein' here was a good enough excuse t' have another go. Or the money offered was too good. Still, he's not gunna be a problem any more - the bloke who rescued Meg told her t' tell me that, an' I'm inclined t' believe him. Word's out 'round a few places - I told Rom what'd happened an' she said seems like Patches ain't in the picture any more."

"Permanently?" There was grim satisfaction in the word.

"Apparently - hard t' tell from what's left." There was no satisfaction in Amanda's voice, only a certain resignation. "Funny how the smallest things come back t' bite you," she continued, leaning on her elbows to look out over the darkened grounds. She took a drag on her cigarette, blew smoke carefully outside. "Or not me this time."

"At least we know it won't happen again from that source, anyway", he said quietly.

"From that source, yeah." Amanda still didn't want to believe it, but she couldn't see it happening any other way. Patches wouldn't haved dared go near her and hers without some kind of go ahead.

He glanced at her sideways, worried. "Yeah?"

"I think someone sent him after her," Amanda said softly. "After Halloween, an' what Pete did to him, there's no way he would've gone after me again, not unless he thought it'd be all right. An' Patches don't do jobs on spec unless there's a profit in it. A big one."

Angelo's eyes hardened. "Selene?"

"I... don't know. Maybe. She'd have the magical knowledge." Amanda's shoulders drooped. "An' access t' the information she'd need t' know."

"One of these days..." he muttered, then looked at her sharply. "Amanda, you're not thinkin'...?"

"I don't know what I'm thinkin', Ange," she said with a sigh. "Pete's White King now. One of them. Maybe he didn't arrange things himself, but maybe he needed an in with the rest of 'em, somethin' t' prove he was serious, an' I handed him the info. I don't want t' be thinkin' this, but it all makes sense. Patches turnin' up after all this time, takin' Meggan, tellin' her she'd make him rich... 'S not like I've been advertisin' her on the magical version of Ebay or nothin'."

"No", he said, shaking his head firmly. "You can't... not after all Pete's done, not after Mexico an' Halloween an' all of it, you can't think he'd ever have dealin's with Patches of all people..."

"Yeah, well, I never thought he'd join the same bastards that nearly got me an' Manny killed last November, too." It was obvious from Amanda's tone that while she hadn't talked about that, she hadn't forgotten it entirely. "An' he wouldn't have had t' deal with that bastard himself. Just a word t' the wrong person, an' things get set in motion." She stubbed out the cigarette almost angrily. "He's not the person either of us thought he was, Ange."

Angelo looked at her unhappily, but shrugged. "Still don't think he'd go that far over the line."

She sighed then, sounding tired and defeated. "I hope you're right, Ange, I really do. Fuck, all of this is down t' him keepin' me an' Rom safe, or so he said. Just... it don't add up, unless you put Pete in the frame. Then a whole lot makes sense. An' me tryin' t' pretend otherwise won't make Meg any safer."

He still didn't like it, but he nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, I know. An' that's the important thing."

"Tell you what - if I'm wrong, you get t' tell me 'I told you so', all you like, how's that sound?" Amanda said, trying to make a joke of things. The past was past, and like Angelo said, Meggan was the important thing here. And she didn't need her Manda brooding.

He offered a half-grin, drawing on his cigarette. "I might just hold you to that."

Later, he comes back to check on them and finds Meggan awake and Amanda asleep. They have a brief conversation of high cute, then go to watch cartoons.



Angelo let himself quietly into Amanda's suite, looking around to see if she was in the common area. She wasn't, and her bedroom door was closed, but Meggan was playing happily. "Hey, Megs", he said with a grin.

"Angelo!" Meggan squealed, dropping her teddy and bouncing into his arms. "I'm back! I was stole, but I'm back an' listen I talk good now!" She'd been worried about Angelo... she knew he was unhappy, and if she'd stayed stolen, who would give him hugs and sit on his knee and listen to stories with him?

He laughed and spun her round. "I heard about that, yeah, chiquita. Good to see you're okay. And talkin'!"

"I practice in my head when I was in the room with the bag on my head," Meggan told him seriously, snuggling up to him. "Moira said I make a... de-ve-lop-men-tal leap."

He hugged her. "An' big words, too. You're doin' really good."

"Missed you," she said, hugging back happily. "You missed me too?" It was nice to know people missed her... she'd gotten SO many hugs today.

"Course I did", he said quietly. "An' Doug, an' Angie..."

"Good." She kissed his cheek gently. "Back now, an' look after you. An' Manda. Manda cried," she added sadly. "But she said 'cause she was happy that I was okay."

"Happy an' relieved", he agreed, stroking her hair absently. "Everybody was - we were scared while you were gone."

"Me TOO," she said fervently. "An' hungry an' thirsty, too. Din't get anything to eat 'cept a bite out of the Bad Man." She looked smug. "Bited him harder than Manuel, even."

Angelo blinked. "You bit Manuel? An' good girl for bitin' the Bad Man."

Meggan nodded. "First time I saw Manuel. He was making Manda hurt, an' he made pretend nice feelings at me. So I bited him. He's BAD," she added, with great conviction.

"Just between us?" he told her confidentially. "I don't like him much either."

Meggan beamed. FINALLY someone agreed with her. "He's bad, and he makes Manda sad sometimes. Manda shouldn't be sad," she said firmly. "I try make her happy again."

"That's a very good thing to do", he told her softly. "Manda shouldn't be sad at all."

"No. Manda should be happy all time." Meggan snuggled. "Angelo be happy too," she said wistfully, patting his cheek gently.

He smiled at her slightly. "I'm tryin' to be, Megs. Just a lot of stuff goin' on right now."

"I love you," she told him seriously. "An' Manda loves you. An' your Mama loves you. So no be sad." Meggan had never yet found a problem that being reassured that she was still loved wouldn't fix.

He looked at her for a long moment, deeply touched. "I know you all do. An' I love you too. It helps a lot."

"Good." Meggan beamed, and then tickled his side to make him giggle. "Manda go sleep. Want to watch TV with me?"

He laughed obligingly. "Sure thing. What d'you want to watch?"

"Cartoon!" She bounced. "Cartoon Network, Doug call it. Cartoons ALL the time."

"Cartoons it is", he said with a grin, bundling her under his arm and making for the couch.