📖?
So I have a very old idea that’s been sitting in my docs for roughly 8 years, it was written for BTVS/Angel verse.
It was an Angel/Cordy fic that sort of diverged mid-Season 3. In canon, Angel and Cordelia begin to fall for each other but their getting together is thwarted when a past love interest of Cordelia’s, Groo, arrives in the middle of the season.
I basically reimagined the love triangle scenario and instead of using Groo, I introduced Phantom Dennis as a love interest. If you recall Cordelia’s apartment was haunted by a ghost, Dennis, who often acted as her protector. There was an episode in season one that told the story of how he died and came to inhabit the apartment, 50 years prior to Cordelia’s arrival.
So the story opens up in Dennis’ POV, we see how he watches and protects Cordelia, how he longs to be human again and how he even came to build a friendship with Fred (which is hinted at in canon). Unbeknownst to Angel and Cordelia, Fred and Dennis have been working together. Dennis wants to be human again and Fred has been researching ancient texts, trying to find some kind of spell that will restore Dennis.
One night Fred and Dennis are experimenting with one of these spells and there’s a blast and some charred carpet and wah-la, Phantom Dennis is no longer a Phantom. He’s alive and human again, living and breathing. When Angel and Cordelia arrive at her place (after a night of patrolling) he’s there. Angel is very apprehensive, he’s somewhat territorial over Cordy and he’s not aggressive with Dennis, but he’s definitely nervous about his arrival. Cordy, meanwhile, is shocked but very welcoming. Dennis has always taken care of her and now that he’s human again she wants to help him get on his feet.
The rest of the story is about how Cordelia helps Dennis adjust to the modern world with cell phones and malls and such. They grow closer as Angel grapples with his jealous, with lots of awkward, bumbly Angel that endears him to the reader. Cordy lets Dennis stay at her apartment because it was his before it was hers after all and she doesn’t want to kick him out of his only home. There’s scenes of Cordelia trying to help him talk to women at clubs, there’s a scene where Dennis takes Cordy for a malt. They have several long meaningful talks. Dennis finds her high school year book and says he wishes he could’ve known her then. Cordy reminisces about her time as a mean girl and admits she probably wouldn’t have been very kind to him. Dennis says he would’ve seen through all of that, to the real her, to the woman she is now, the woman she would become. Over a period of time it becomes evident to everyone but Cordelia that Dennis is in love with her.
Over the course of the story Cordelia has been urging Angel to utilize Dennis on missions. She suggests he be a part of the team along with Wesley, Gunn and Fred. Angel isn’t for it but relents eventually to allowing Dennis train with Wesley and Gunn. He lets him hang around the hotel answering phones and running errands but insists he stay out of their fights.
Until one night a Big Bad is on the loose and the gang has to fight it in some dark, damp alley way. Things go down and despite being told to stay behind Dennis follows after and after a mistep, Cordelia is injured in the fight. Angel is livid and blames Dennis and it results in Angel biting his head off (figuratively) and he basically tells Dennis this never would’ve happened if he had just stayed a ghost. Dennis, with his tail between his legs, goes back to sulk at Cordelia’s apartment.
Cordelia recovers after awhile (I believe she has super healing at this point in the show if I’m remembering correctly) and she and Angel have a huge fight over Dennis. They go back and forth about him and Cordelia finally says something like ‘’are you angry at him or are you angry at me?’’ and they get into the fact that Angel has felt insecure about Cordelia spending all this time with him. Cordy and Angel have been dancing around their feelings for the entire season and they finally hash it out with Dennis being the catalyst.
Cordelia and Angel end the conversation in an uncertain place, they’re both still upset....
...I have all of this written out, my problem was each time I got to this point the story told me that organically, I felt like Cordelia should end up in Dennis’ arms. I started it as a Cordy/Angel fic but I kept going back to Cordelia and this background ‘’character’’. Dennis is very much a silent entity on the show so I could make him be whatever I wanted him to be. I made him into a charming slightly dorky guy who’s just a little bit out of his element (being from a different era and all). Throughout the fic there are scenes of Cordelia and human Dennis having conversations about what it means to be alive and to be the best version of yourself and I found myself falling in love with what is essentially Cordelia/OC.
No matter how much I walked Angel back and made him more understanding, more vulnerable, no matter how much Angel/Cordy banter I injected, it still felt like Cordy should end up with the ghost lol. Phantom Dennis is pretty beloved in the fandom but I wasn’t sure if that was something anyone would want to read.
I truly believe it is a beautiful story and while it sounds a little grey, it was actually really funny in some parts. I read it three months ago and was really pleasantly surprised at how engaging it was :)
