Story rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing… except a bus-card, but that has nothing to do with this.
Where are we?Buffy and Spike are an item but no one knows. Xander and Anya are getting married and Angel and Cordelia just popped in for a visit… sort of.

Chapter 2

At half past seven sharp Buffy heard the front door open and close. It couldn't already be time to get up. There must still be a few hours until she had to be up, even if Anya had insisted on having a breakfast meeting to go over the last details for the wedding.

"Time to wake up good Summers ladies," she heard Xander yell from down stairs. Willow must already be up, Buffy thought.

When the Slayer finally came down the stairs and saw the basement door the events of the night came back to her. Shit.

"Hey, tried to make a little less noise. Angel and Cordelia are asleep down in the basement. Maybe we should go into the living room. Ooo doughnuts," she added while shooing them towards the living room. "Great."

"Just a little peace offering for turning the Scoobies into the Scooby wedding planners extraordinaire," Xander blabbered happily before realizing fully what Buffy had just said. "Did you just say Angel and Cordelia are in the basement?"

It would have been to good to be true if he hadn't noticed. All of the sudden everyone had registered her words and three pairs of eyes were staring at her in surprise.

"What?" she answered in a defensive tone of voice. "They called here in the middle of the night. They were going to drive to L.A. but their car broke down and they needed a place to crash. What was I supposed to do? Let him turn to dust on my doorstep?"

"I would've swept the porch for you," Xander mumbled.

"Xander, that was just cruel," Willow said.

"Wait," Xander started again. "Did you say Cordelia was with him?" Buffy watched his face get whiter. "Does she know about the wedding?"

"You're ex is sleeping with Buffy's ex in Buffy's basement two nights before our wedding. Interesting." Anya supplied matter-of-factly.

"Not with, with?" Xander looked suspiciously at Buffy who shrug her shoulders in return. "We put up two cots but I didn't really check if both are in use. And don't worry, I told her you'd be here and she doesn't have a problem with it. So any wedding business to discuss?"

Buffy didn't really think there was much left to do before the wedding but Anya seemed to think it would at least take one human lifetime to complete. The girl was really freaking out and really getting on everyone's nerves.

Xander had been trying to get her to calm down but without any luck. "Anya honey," he tried softly once more. "We've got the list. It's nothing really tricky still left to do. It just needs to be done and we can do it. Maybe it would be good for you to do something totally different for a while, you know, just to take your mind off things?"

"Like what?"

"Go shopping or something. Then in a couple of hours you can see what we've done already and reassure yourself that we didn't forget anything. Okay?"

Before Anya had a chance to answer everyone's attention was drawn to Cordelia who was standing in the doorway smiling warmly. "Hi, guys."

Even if the matter had already been discussed the atmosphere was a little awkward. "How's the wedding coming," she asked. "I'd love to help if there's something to do."

"Actually we have it under control," Xander answered sheepishly not being used to Cordelia being so nice, even while they had been dating. "Anya was actually just going to the mall to take her mind of things for a little while, weren't you honey?"

"But Xander. It's no fun going alone."

Willow and Buffy both held there breaths neither eager to go shopping with Anya on a normal day but today with her nervousness on top of her normal personality it would be sheer torture.

Xander looked around worried.

"I don't think we can't really spare anyone of us if we're going to get this done. It's not really a problem to do it. We just have to do it," Willow tried to explain hoping she would at least manage to excluder herself from the dreaded task.

"It might be a little strange and I'll understand if you don't want to," Cordelia intervened, "but I could go with you. I love to shop and I also need to get a few things since I didn't really pack for an overnight trip."

"Great," Anya replied cheerfully. "Let's go." She grabbed Cordy's arm and started dragging her towards the door.

"Eehm, Cordy?" Buffy called after the two girls. "Angel… we could put up some blankets if he…"

"He's still sleeping, don't worry. He was really beat." After that the door slammed and the girls were gone.

The three friends enjoyed the few minutes of silence until Dawn, upstairs in her room, turned up her stereo and started blasting her new favorite song: Hanson's Where's the love. She had found the CD among some things Buffy had been ready to throw away.

"Not that again," Buffy sighed having heard this song more often in the past two days that in the six years she had had that stupid CD. "Dawn! Turn it down!" she yelled not surprisingly without any effect. If the music hadn't drowned out Buffy's yell Dawns inspired sing-a-long surely had. Buffy let herself fall back on the couch in defeat and let out another sigh.

Xander was coming to from his more or less frozen state ever since Cordelia had appeared from the basement. "My fiancée going shopping with my ex the day before your wedding? That can't be good," he said to himself or anyone listing, sounding scared.

"Xander, I think Anya is going to be ok. Cordelia is the one I could be worried about," Willow replied.

"Maybe I should go after them. Make sure no one gets hurt… or talking…"

"Xander, no! We need to get started on the place cards and we can't really loose any hands." Project leader Willow was on since project tyrant Anya was gone.

"Oh God. I've had enough of this crap. I'm going up there and breaking that CD." Buffy stormed off up the stairs towards her sister's bedroom.

"Tell her to come down here and help us," Willow called after her friend. "But for Gods sake break the CD," she added in a little lower voice.

It was getting late into the afternoon and Anya and Cordy still weren't back. Buffy, Xander, Willow and Dawn were finally finished with the place cards and had arranged them into bundles according to tables so they could be more easily distributed at the venue tomorrow morning.

Buffy suddenly felt a familiar tingling at the back of her neck turned around to face Angel who was standing in the doorway. He couldn't come further into the sunlight filled room with the blinds open.

"Hi. I had almost forgotten you were here. I'll just close the blinds for you." She got up and headed towards the window.

"You don't have to, Buffy."

"I know. Did you sleep well?" she asked like a proper host should ask a houseguest.

"Yes. Thanks. I really needed it. Do you have a phone book I could borrow?"

"Sure." She led him into the kitchen. "What do you need it for?"

"Looks like I might need to find a place to stay for the night and tomorrow. I just talked to the mechanic working on the car and he won't be able to finish the repairs until tomorrow."

"Try, but if you don't find anything you can stay here again. It's no big deal – if you can tolerate the chaos of course."

"Thanks, Buffy. But I'll try to get something."

Ten minutes later he came into the living room again hesitantly entering it this time. "Buffy, if your offer still stands I think we might have to take you up on it. There's absolutely nothing available."

"Sure." She got a crazy idea that brought an evil grin to her face. "But you have to help. How are your flower arranging skills? We were just about to get started on the table center pieces."