After the surprise visit of Stevie Nicks, things had calmed down and the witches had split to do their own things. Angel had found herself within the greenhouse out back. She was happy to be surrounded by nature again, it made her miss her garden back home. She was grateful for all the coven had done for her but the house felt a bit stifling at times, no matter how large it was. She could constantly feel Fiona and Madison's dark auras and she just needed a reprieve. The greenhouse offered that to her; the silent company of plant-life and the seclusion away from the other witches.
She twirled around, Misty's, or rather her own, blue shawl fanning out behind her as she lightly danced to the music softly playing on the radio. She was currently pruning some of the plants in the room, taking a mental note of the variety around her. She was in the middle of sprucing up a chamomile plant when she heard rushed footsteps enter the greenhouse. She turned to see Cordelia, tears running down her face.
"Miss Cordelia?" Said woman gasped, not expecting anyone to be in her safe place. She brought a hand to her racing heart.
"Oh, Angel. You scared me." She gave a weak chuckle.
"Are you okay?" The teen asked.
Cordelia wiped at her eyes, "Yes. Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." She didn't want to talk about all the horrible things her mother just said about her. They all felt too real, and the truth of those words was standing right in front of her.
'...You can't help anyone. You're worthless, hopeless.'
"Are ya sure?" She asked again, "I can keep a secret, just ask Misty. After all, I never told Daddy when she was sneaking off at night to meet that friend of hers when she was in High School." She gave a giggle, hoping to ease the tense woman.
Cordelia chuckled in response but her eyes remained sad. "I'm alright, dear. Nothing you need to worry about." She reassured, "What are you doing in here?"
"Oh. Um, well... I just wanted to get out of the house for a little. It can be quite claustrophobic after a while." She replied, telling a half-truth.
Cordelia hummed and approached the young girl. "Your sister says you're good at reviving plant life. Is that true?" She asked.
Angel rolled her eyes, "Of course Misty was braggin' about me. She always thinks I can do more than I really can. But in this instance, she wasn't lyin'."
Cordelia walked to the back of the greenhouse and brought over a nearly dead Catnip plant that she had been working to restore on her own. She was curious as to what Angel was really capable of in her element and this was a perfect opportunity to try.
"Oh. Ya wanna see?" Angel asked hesitantly, looking at the tall blonde.
Cordelia gave an encouraging nod and moved out of the way, Angel taking her place. She had never done this in front of someone who wasn't her older sister. She placed her hands around the base of the plant and took a deep breath in, closing her eyes and exhaling. Within moments, the brown leaves fell away and the plant's health was restored. Vibrant green leaves were left in its wake, small purple flowers blooming all over. She took a step back and smiled at Cordelia who was speechless.
Just as Misty said, Angel required no incantation in order to revive a plant, she just simply did it. "Wow." She breathed.
A bright red blush made its way onto Angel's cheeks, travelling down her neck. She was so used to reviving plants that the amazement eventually wore off, she didn't see it as a big deal. It's not like she could always successfully revive a person. She had only done that once and she wasn't sure if she would be able to do it again.
"How long have you been able to do that?" Cordelia asked, looking at the young witch.
She shrugged, "I'm not sure, I've been able to help plant life for about a year now. But fully reviving a plant? I'd say about 4-5 months now." She looked up from the plant in front of her.
"So Chlorokinesis is the first power you manifested?" Cordelia asked, trying to understand Angel a little better.
Angel tilted her head to the side, "I'm guessin' Chlorokinesis is the plant thing." She said pointing her thumb to the greenery next to her. Cordelia chuckled in amusement. "But no, I've had powers since I was 8 but that was the first one I had to work on to improve. I guess Misty didn't tell ya but I can actually read auras, or technically energy." Angel explained.
"Oh, of course. I forgot, Misty had actually mentioned it in a conversation once but it seemed to have skipped my mind." She admitted with a guilty smile. "She told me you recognized the aura of the gunman who shot you." Cordelia's gaze dropped down to her feet as she thought back to it. With the new information that had been brought to light thanks to Marie Laveau, it was now obvious to the woman that the shooter who hurt Angel was actually her ex-husband, Hank.
"That's alright. Sometimes I even forget I have it. It ain't exactly the most flashy power but it does give me a great insight into people when I first meet them." Angel told her.
"What exactly do you see?"
"It's just a mish-mosh of transparent colors surrounding a person's figure." Angel nonchalantly explained as she took a seat on a stool near the table. "Each individual person's aura is different but my power can be limited considering there's only so many visible colors of the rainbow. Some people's auras are small, others are big, some are harder to see, while others are as bright as a neon sign."
"Do you know what the colors mean? Do you hear a voice telling you their meanings?" Cordelia asked, completely enthralled with this new ability. She wished she had brought a pen and paper to take notes.
"No." She shook her head, "When I first started seein' the colors, they meant nothing to me. There was the obvious, such as dark colors mean dark intentions but I had to do research in order to understand a lot of what I was seein'. Of course, it isn't an exact science. Experience has taught me a lot. I used to associate one color with one emotion- such as red means angry and yellow means happiness, but just like people, it's a lot more complex than that."
"Does a person's aura change from day-to-day?" Cordelia questioned.
"No, thankfully. I don't have to interpret a person's mood. It gives me an insight into who that person is, their intentions, what type of personality they have. Although, I have noticed with Misty that her's slowly changed over the years and developed more colors. So that leads me to believe that as the person grows, so does their aura." Angel was patient with all the inquires, after all no one had taken her ability seriously until now. Of course Misty did but it had been so long since she had actually discussed it with her.
"What do you see in my aura?" The older witch couldn't hold back her curiousity.
Angel giggled, and here she thought she could learn from Cordelia, not the other way around. She looked at the older woman, her gaze focusing on the space surrounding her rather than her actual person. "You're mostly surrounded by light pink, yellow and blue. But there are also hints of burgundy, orange, brown and even white. A person as complex as yourself is bound to have a complex aura. It's almost hard to individually pick out all the colors."
"What does all of it look like to you? Other than just colors."
"That's all it really is." She shrugged, "Just colors, but sometimes they all blend together and when I see someone with an aura as complex as yours it can tend to be a headache, tryin' to single out one color. My eyes are just normally drawn to a person's primary colors. In your case, light pink and blue. The secondary colors I've more or less learned to ignore." Angel explained, refocusing her gaze on Cordelia's eyes.
"Is it ever hard, being surrounded by all these colors?" She asked, sympathetically.
Angel sighed, biting her lower lip. "Yeah, back at our swamp I had a pair of sunglasses that cut away color. I had lied to my doctors, told them I had a sensitivity to colors-which I guess technically isn't a lie. So I had glasses specially made for me. We didn't have time to grab them before leavin' though."
Cordelia felt bad for the girl, it must be hard having an array of colors intruding on your reality. She thought for a moment. "You know what? When I get a chance, I have a pair of sunglasses that I wore when I was around your age. I'll find an incantation, so I can bless them. Hopefully they'll make a good substitute for what was left behind." She smiled at the young girl, placing a supportive hand on top of hers.
Angel looked up at her, a small smile on her lips. "Really? You'd do that for me?" She asked.
Cordelia nodded, "Of course, it's the least I could do to repay you for what happened."
Angel frowned at the woman, her head tilting to the side once more. It almost reminded Cordelia of a puppy. "What are ya talkin' about?" She paused, putting the pieces together. "Oh, Miss Cordelia. What happened to me isn't your fault." She stated, shaking her head.
But in a way it was, Cordelia believed. After all, she was the one to marry Hank. Obviously, she had no idea he was a witch hunter but that didn't take away from the fact that he knew where witches were living and had decided to make an attempt on Angel's life.
Angel's eyes widened. During this whole time, Cordelia still had her hand placed on Angel's and it was at that moment that a new power had decided to manifest itself. Through their physical contact, Angel had heard all of Cordelia's thoughts. She ripped her hand away with a gasp, staring down at it.
"Angel?" Cordelia asked in concern. "What's wrong?"
"Ya knew him?" She asked, taking a shaky breath in and standing from her seat. "You're married to the man who shot me?"
Cordelia frowned and opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. Instead of explaining all she said was, "How did you know?"
"I heard your thoughts, when ya were touching me."
Physical Telepathy, Cordelia realized. "Please, let me explain. I didn't know it was Hank until after you were shot." Angel kept her eyes on Cordelia's face, reading her emotions. "We extracted the bullet from your body and realized it was witch hunters. I didn't know it was actually Hank until this morning. I also had no idea that he was secretly a witch hunter. That shooting in the Ninth Ward? That was him. Marie Laveau told me that she had hired him to kill us all. Please, you have to believe me, Angel. I didn't know." She pleaded.
Angel stood there for a moment, taking it all in. She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves before nodding. "I believe you." She quietly replied.
"You do?" Cordelia asked, she had expected that to be harder.
Angel chuckled and tapped her temple. "Did ya forget the whole conversation we just had? There's nothing dark about ya, Miss Cordelia. I would've had a harder time believing ya if ya told me you did know." She took her seat once again, sighing heavily. "But how did I do that? How did I read your thoughts?" She asked.
"It's known as Physical Telepathy. Just like how Nan can read everyone's thoughts, the only difference is you need to be in physical contact with the person you wish to read. I'm guessing that's never happened to you before?"
Angel shook her head. She didn't really like this new power, it felt too intrusive. Does this mean it would happen every time she touched someone? Does this mean she would know someone really didn't want to hug her while in the middle of doing so?
"Will this happen every time I touch someone now?" She asked, her lips turned down.
"I'm not sure to be honest." Cordelia responded, "With the amount of power you have, I wouldn't be surprised if you found a way to block it. I guess we'll just have to wait and find out. But if it does become a problem, the solution is as simple as wearing a pair of gloves."
Angel gave a humorless chuckle, "Sure, 'cause that's totally normal in New Orleans."
Cordelia gave a sympathetic smile and patted the girl's knee. "We'll figure it out. And I'll be here to help if you need me."
Angel gave a bright smile. "I like ya, Miss Cordelia. You're so nice and helpful. It's easy to talk to ya. Can... Can I tell you something?" She asked. "It has to stay a secret between us, though." She said seriously.
"Of course, dear."
"Sometimes... sometimes I'm afraid that Misty is getting tired of me." Angel admitted.
"What do you mean?" Cordelia asked.
"Well, it's just." She sighed, "Misty's had to take care of me since I was 10. And sometimes even before then, since our momma died when we were kids. We've been on our own for so long that after a while, I wondered if maybe things would be easier for her if I wasn't around. I know I can be obnoxious and clingy but she's all I have. I'm so scared to lose her that sometimes I find it hard to be away from her and while she doesn't say anythin', I know it can be annoyin'." She shrugged, looking down. "I'm just afraid that one day she'll leave and I'll never see her again."
Cordelia felt her heart break for the young girl. She had abandonment issues just like herself. "Angel," She started, grabbing the blonde's hand, "I promise you that Misty will never get tired of you. She will never leave you. She loves you so much and it's plain as day when she looks at you or talks about you. You two have an unbreakable bond, and even when you're her age and have a life of your own, she will always be your sister. I have no doubt in my mind that if you called and needed her, she would drop everything to be by your side." She wiped away a tear that fell from Angel's eye. "And you will always have me and the girls here at the academy as well. You and your sister are not alone anymore."
Suddenly, the teen leapt from her seat and hugged Cordelia tightly. She hadn't known her for long, but the older woman meant so much to her- dare she say, she even loved Cordelia. She was happy to have meant everyone here, yes even Madison, because she believed the older blonde when she said that she would always be there for her.
Both girls left the greenhouse feeling better. Angel felt loved by someone other than her sister and Cordelia didn't feel worthless or helpless, like her mother had said; after all, Angel needed her help and she made her feel worthy.