"How come Heaven looks like a waiting room in a cheap clinic?"
Cordelia flips through the eight year old "Us" magazine, snorting at how young and innocent Britney Spears looked and how Paris is still only a city being profiled as the hot spot for young lovers, and, without looking up at her pacing companion, replies, "Wondered when you'd get around to that. Not Heaven."
Gunn stops pacing, shoots her a worried look. "Hell? Holding dimension for Hell?"
"Nope." She does look up, then, giving him a disapproving look. "You lucked out on that one, Gunn. With all that lawyerly crap in your head, you know what Wolfram & Hart employment contracts entail."
"Then where are we?" he persists, finally flopping down in the hard plastic chair attached to hers along with three others, all chipped orange and dull chrome.
"A waiting room. We're waiting," she explains with exasperated fake patience.
"I...died."
"Yep, me too, and I've been here a hell of a lot longer than you. How'd you go out?"
Gunn tries to remember but all he gets are flashes of pain and blood. "Fighting."
"Since you're here, I'm assuming you were on the right side."
"Tried to take down Wolfram & Hart."
"Angel and his stupid plans," she tsks and tosses the magazine aside, turning slightly to look him in the eyes. "Wes and Lindsey were here for a split second each a while back. They die, too?"
"Dunno about McDonald, but, yeah, Wes died." He looks around as if he expects to see others but the room remains empty save the two of them and the receptionist behind the glass who has ignored them both the entire time, not even responding to direct questions. "None of the others?"
"Not yet. Battle might not be over, though."
He frowns. "That's a cheery thought."
Her smile doesn't reach her eyes. "We're here for a reason, Charles. It's not limbo. I figured that out a while ago, and I'm pretty sure we're not going to go up or down. We're waiting."
"For what? If not to be sent to Heaven or Hell, then for what?"
"What comes next." That time her eyes smile as well and across the room a door opens. It's the same door that opened for Wesley and Lindsey but this time Cordelia knows it's for them, and she takes Gunn's hand, pulls him up with her. "Come on, let's find out what the Powers That Crap On Us have in store."
Together they run out the door.
End