Silent Running

 
The only thing worse than being (un)dead is trying to make everyone think you're really dead. Angel was never very good at waiting, but now (like Willow would’ve said) he’s got to be 'pretendy' dead too, until he figures out what to do next. And it hasn't taken long for that to get very, very boring.

Go back only a decade, and he would have spent this whole time brooding. He used to be pretty good at that. In fact, he still is. But there’s brooding because you want to and then brooding because you have nothing else to do, and that’s never as good.

The real problem is, They're still out there. The Circle. The Senior Partners’ best. Angel has done it. He's hurt them, badly. But he hasn’t taken all of them down. And the ones that are left? Now well out of reach.

"Couldn't finish the job, could you, Captain Forehead?  Ponce."

Taking over the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart had been the chance of a lifetime, and despite all the mistakes—-soooo many mistakes—-in the end, he'd done just about everything he could with it. So he's trying not to complain.

But I couldn't save Fred.

But the thing is, the fight's still going on out there. And he doesn't have a part in it. He's done. His people are gone, or on the run, or (dammit. dammit) dead.

Buffy always wanted this. To be done. I didn’t.

Back in the old days, he would have been fine on his own. Not anymore though. Now if he wants back in, if he wants to make a difference, he’s going to need a team.

Like Gunn had.

So, for now, all he can do is just glare at the guy. The guy in the expensive suit that Angel has just ruined by using its lapels to dangle its owner off the roof edge of this office building, ten flights up. The same well-dressed guy who, five minutes ago, had been planning to sacrifice those two college students over there, to some god Angel has never even hard of before.

Wesley would have known.

Small-time stuff. In the Big Picture, whatever would have happened here wouldn’t have mattered. But it mattered to him, which was why he's making sure it doesn't happen. And he's also going to make sure Mr. Evil Sorcerer wakes up tomorrow morning with a burning desire to find a new way to make a living.

A new life, like Lorne has now.

Little stuff. Just like this. That’s how it started before, back with Whistler, back before Buffy, before the move to L.A.

Cordy would have wanted it this way.

Maybe this is how it’ll start again.