doyle: tardis (1 dimensional cellular automata (yay for)
[personal profile] doyle
Last one, I swear. (But in one night I've cut my backlog by about a quarter, which makes me a happy person indeed.)

Title: Battlefield Word
Author: Doyle
Pairing: no pairing, Angel/Wes/Cordelia friendship
Rating: G
Notes: For [livejournal.com profile] nova25 for the family ficathon. Set between the 1st and 2nd season.


There were fields on which tremendous battles were fought. Epic conflicts that shaped the world, pitting nation against nation, soldier against soldier, in tests of loyalty, stamina and the sheer endurance of the human spirit.

Cordelia's hospital bedside, a week after the explosion that had destroyed their offices and the psychic attack by Wolfram & Hart, was not one such battleground. But the possibilities for watching television and reading magazines had been exhausted, and Wesley had mentioned his days in the Academy's scrabble club, and the next night Angel had rather sheepishly brought a game, new in the box with the instructions still inside.

Twenty minutes later, it was war.

Angel's turn changed Cordelia's 'dig' into 'paradigm'. He sat back in the plastic visitor's chair, looking as pleased with himself as Wesley had ever seen him.

"Hey," Cordelia complained, "if he's allowed Irish words, I can put down Prada, Mr. Not-in-the-dictionary-doesn't-count."

"Wes's turn," was all Angel said, fixing Wesley with a competitive stare that reminded him of things he'd read about Angelus's more inventive tortures.

But a former Watcher and rogue demon hunter would not easily quail under such tactics. That trailing 'm' meant he had the perfect place to nab a triple word score for 'ojime'.

"It's a type of bead," he said smugly, before either of them could protest. "And yes, Cordelia, it's in the dictionary."

"Lemme see that." She hefted the book up the bed. Wesley and Angel scrambled to save the board. "Huh. I think I used to have a necklace made of those."

"So that's a total of one hundred and thirty six to me," he said, totting up the figures on the score sheet, "ninety-four to Angel, and, oh dear, Cordelia languishing in the doldrums with a rather poor forty-five."

"I dunno, Wes," Angel said. "She's still sick. Maybe we should let her win."

Cordelia's jaw dropped in mock outrage. "Let me win? Which one of us got 720 verbal on the SAT? I think that would be me."

"We didn't have SATs in the eighteenth century."

"Nor in England. Although there's hardly a day goes by when I don't wish that I had a spelling test and some sums to see me through life."

Cordelia stuck out her tongue and plunked down her letters. " 'Morons'," she said. "No comment necessary."

Angel, on a roll with co-opting her words, added an 'oxy' to the front.

"Is this what you do for fun in England?" Cordelia wanted to know. "The whole family sits around the roaring log fire playing wacky word games?"

"I'm not really sure," he said, keeping his eyes on his tiles. "I was an only child, and my parents were never fond of games."

It was the first time all evening that the other two had been silent at the same moment. He imagined he could hear his wristwatch ticking, or feel the look passing between Angel and Cordelia.

"I dunno," Cordy said. "This family game thing, maybe it's something we should do."

Angel said, "Wes? It's your turn."

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Yes, it is, isn't it?"

on 2004-08-03 04:57 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] paratti.livejournal.com
I'm in awe. Such output, and all so good!

on 2004-08-03 05:02 pm (UTC)
ext_2366: (Default)
Posted by [identity profile] sdwolfpup.livejournal.com
Awww...this fed my current S1 family-mood perfectly. Lovely little ficlet.

on 2004-08-03 05:20 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] eloise-bright.livejournal.com
I hug this fic and love it and want to take it home and cuddle it.

This family game thing, maybe it's something we should do

Yes, yes, family fic is the stuff. Perfect piece. Hugs little lonely Wes... and you for writing this.

on 2004-08-03 05:27 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com
You guys and your effortless stellar writing! (Throws up hands)

on 2004-08-03 06:00 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] caytlyn.livejournal.com
Ooh, I love the familial feel to this... and not overboard with the comforting, either. Lovely little piece, with a perfect snarky!Cordelia, but not overly... am I making sense? Sometimes I tend to drift...

Excellent, though

~Cayt

on 2004-08-03 07:17 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] firstgold.livejournal.com
This was all warm and fuzzy. I loved it!

on 2004-08-03 07:21 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com
Aww. Just a perfect aww.

on 2004-08-03 07:26 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] metalphoenix.livejournal.com
Awww.. I love you.

on 2004-08-03 08:39 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] midnightsjane.livejournal.com
Ooh, scrabble fun! I can just see the three of them sitting around playing scrabble. Great game, I'm a fan. When I play with my pal Jeanne, she plays like Angel. I play like Cordy. It is war. This is such a fun little fic, with a twist of Wesley angst at the end. I am hooked on your little fics - keep 'em coming!

on 2004-08-03 08:48 pm (UTC)
ext_7299: (Default)
Posted by [identity profile] redbrickrose.livejournal.com
So perfectly them.
Your voices are always spot on. I continue to be impressed.

on 2004-08-03 10:10 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] thomasina75.livejournal.com
Loved this. You captured their relationship at this point in the series perfectly. :-)

on 2004-08-03 11:53 pm (UTC)
ext_47289: (Default)
Posted by [identity profile] invaderwitch.livejournal.com
The best part of this is that I'm actually in a Scrabble league that meets once a week... Um.
Yea. Very good. ^_^

on 2004-08-04 12:30 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] paratti.livejournal.com
Smooch.

Re: Scrabble good

on 2004-08-04 12:37 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] doyle_sb4.livejournal.com
*g* Dude, I wasn't at Writercon. But I was at the LJ equivalent, [livejournal.com profile] tigannie_con and it was fabulous ;)

on 2004-08-04 10:39 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] odycee.livejournal.com
That was touching and funny. I can't remember when I last watched any s1 Angel.

I followed you over here from [livejournal.com profile] luxor_casino as I'm a stalker like that. I hope you don't mind if I friend you as a) you wrote Teachers slash, b) you linked to that Blizzard of Tiny Kisses essay last week and I was laughing my head off at work today reading it, and c) erm... there is no c.

on 2004-08-04 12:56 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] doyle_sb4.livejournal.com
Yay! I'm so happy to find someone else who's seen Teachers. There should be a fandom. I'm so requesting it in December for the rare pairings Yuletide thingie...

on 2004-08-11 11:12 am (UTC)
ext_23741: (Default)
Posted by [identity profile] carawj.livejournal.com
See me lurking around your journal in a vaguely stalkerish way. *sheepish grin*

Anyway, I'm here to madly fangirl this fic, which I adore. Also to squeak that you like Teachers! Kurt/Brian! Penny/Lindsey! Penny/Susan! *resolves to stop abusing the exclamation mark*
<3

on 2004-08-11 11:59 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] doyle_sb4.livejournal.com
Hee! No, abuse the exclamation mark! The one true love of Kurt and Brian demands it!

on 2004-08-11 01:25 pm (UTC)
ext_23741: (Default)
Posted by [identity profile] carawj.livejournal.com
*squeaks helplessly* It does! It does!

On another note, one of your posts around here somewhere *pokes about for it* let me discover [livejournal.com profile] buffyverse1000, for which I absolutely totally and utterly love you to death.

Do you mind if I friend you? ^_^

on 2004-08-11 01:36 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] doyle_sb4.livejournal.com
*g* Please do!

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doyle

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