Pretty Postcards From Hell 2

~2~

Cordelia had died, and gone to – well, if not heaven, at least the Decorator's Showcase model for it. She woke up in a huge waterbed encased in satin sheets. Through the sheer drapes on the French doors she could see a sparkling pool and manicured yard. Through a door slightly to the right, she saw a bathroom area that just possibly was larger than her entire apartment. An antique wardrobe stood a bit farther down the wall. The bed smelled of cologne, and vaguely of sex. She didn't remember having sex, and it happened to her infrequently enough she was sure she'd have recalled. That wasn't her fragrance, either. She came to the conclusion that this was someone else's bed and room. Damn.

Motion to the other side of the room caught her eye, and she turned to see Xander come in. He'd thrown a short-sleeved shirt over his swim trunks, although it was still unbuttoned. Casting an appraising glance up and down his body, Cordy had to ask herself why she'd ever given him up. Oh, yeah, Willow, kissing, rebar. Still…

No, not going to go there, she remonstrated herself. Apparently, he's Buffy's now. She wondered how Willow felt about that. That thought led to a flood of thoughts, the magnitude of which had overwhelmed her previously, and she groaned and put a hand to her head.

Looking up she all but fell into his dark concerned eyes. "Hey, Cor. You any better? You've been out for quite a while." Xander sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her hair back from her forehead. "Wesley called Angel, and he's having kittens that he can't leave LA 'till dark. Dead Boy really cares for you doesn't he?"

"Nice room," Cordelia replied wryly, avoiding the question. She didn't know how she and Angel stood, and wasn't about to examine the subject with her ex-boyfriend.

"Yeah," he grinned. "Buffy thought we should put you in our room since Wesley wasn't going to make it all the way upstairs to the guest room carrying you."

"Hey! I'm not that heavy."

"No, but Wes is that much of a wimp." She slugged him in the arm.

Buffy hollered in, sounding amused, from just outside the almost closed door. "Stop beating on my man, Cordelia. That's my job."

Cordy sat up quickly, but the pain in her head made her wince. Xander grabbed a few pillows and placed them against the headboard, helping her ease back to sit up against them. Once settled, she scowled at Xander, and he knew he was in for it. He just wasn't sure what "it" was going to be, yet. "Okay," she demanded. "What's the what with you and the Slay babe? Last I knew, you were dating an ex-demon and she was getting over Soldier Boy. Now you live together on Easy Street, and I could swear you're reading each other's minds."

"We do. Read each other's minds. We've had a lot going on since we last talked to you, Cor. Most of it seems pretty unbelievable, even to me, and I was there." He proceeded to let her know what had been happening for the last few months in Sunnydale; although he never referred to the being that they were Parts of by name. Every once in a while, she could tell Buffy had taken over the narrative, even though it was Xander's voice. It spooked her a bit, talking to both of them with only one present, but she was fascinated by the tale. Had it happened anywhere but over the Hellmouth, it would be unreal. As it was, it was still pretty bizarre.

"So you're saying Willow – and *Giles*?"

"Yup," Xander assured her. "On the office desk, no less."

"I'm sorry," Queen C shook her head. "I can believe that you and Buffy share thoughts and feelings. I can believe the four of you together make up some magical Supergirl with direct connections to God Himself. I can believe you are rich beyond my wildest dreams, which are pretty wild. I cannot believe the two of them are doing it, and especially not under those circumstances."

"Reserve judgment until you see how hot he looks now that he's lost a few years, Cordy." That had clearly been Buffy speaking. Xander took back control. "How are you feeling now?"

"Better," she admitted.

"Wanna try standing? The lovely Slayer has ordered Chinese for lunch, albeit a late one, and it awaits us in the dining room, along with the couple in question and Wesley." Cordelia nodded, and Xander helped her carefully to her feet, keeping a supportive arm around her waist. She gained strength as she walked, and by the time they reached the dining room, she was barely leaning on him for support. She looked up, and stared into a set of very attractive hazel brown eyes, set in the face of an equally attractive sandy-haired man. It took her a few moments.

"Giles?" He nodded. "Whoa! I think I agree with ya, Buff. Definite hottie!" Then he blushed, and she recognized the former librarian clearly. Looking around the group, she announced, "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's eat."

They all dug in, and for the rest of lunch, prophecy and danger were forgotten, while old friends shared, and conversation buzzed cheerfully.

~**~

Ernst Heinrich hung up the telephone. Turning to his napping protégé, he smiled. "Now things should start to get interesting," he announced to the sleeping figure. "It's all set into place."

~**~

"So, Cordy – what's the big bad all about?" Willow asked from her perch on the arm of Giles' chair.

"Well, I guess you all know how I inherited this vision thing from Doyle when he died. It's a royal pain in the ass, but we have been able to save a few lives because of it. This morning, I was awakened by a real doozy. You four," she nodded to the two couples, "were all there, and this big black evil *thing* was swallowing you all. The scariest part was, you weren't fighting it – you were angry and hostile, but not towards *it*. After it consumed you all, it began to destroy the world, a piece at a time. It was awful." She covered her face with her hands to regain her composure.

"What did it look like, Cordelia?" Giles asked her gently.

"I don't know. Black. BAD. I couldn't get a clear view, but I'd probably know it if I saw it again."

"I have a fairly complete library here at the house, but if we can't find it in these books, we can go to the store." Giles was already shifting into Research Mode. "Can you tell me anything more about it?"

"Yeah – it kept talking about something called Unity."

~**~

Angel hated Sunnydale. Nothing good ever happened there, it seemed. He'd fallen for Buffy, almost destroying her destiny. He'd made love to Buffy, destroying his own soul. It had been the departure gate for his personal non-stop flight to Hell. Now, the black stain that was Sunnydale was affecting Cordelia. And as soon as the sun set, he'd hit the road, driving like crazy to get there, even though Wesley had called back and told him she was doing fine. He still worried about her – someone had to. She didn't worry enough about herself. That was the other bad thing about Sunnydale – it was too far from LA when a vampire was in a hurry to get there.

~**~

Cordelia had expected any number of responses to her vision. She thought maybe they'd go into Heavy Research, like they used to in high school. Maybe Giles would call the Watcher's Council for help. Buffy, if she were her usual self, might run out and try to take it on without further information. She never expected them all to laugh at her.

"What?" she demanded, as the peals of laughter rang from the four. "I tell you you're all going to probably die because of this Unity thing, and you think it's funny?" She was beginning to get angry.

Xander walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, which she angrily shrugged away. "Sorry, Cor, but you really had us going there for a bit."

"There really is nothing amusing about Cordelia's visions," Wesley sniffed prissily. "They've always been accurate in the past."

"Remember that Supergirl I told you about, Cor? The one that's made up of the four of us? *That's* Unity. She's not evil at all." Xander wiped his eyes. Sometime during lunch, the water had come back on, and he walked back over to his seat and picked up his glass, taking a big gulp to help him regain his equilibrium. "She wouldn't hurt a flea."

"I thought she was helping you guys kill vamps and demons. Isn't that more than a flea?"

"I kill vampires and demons, too, Cordy," Buffy offered. "That doesn't make me automatically a candidate for the next Big Bad."

"But couldn't she *become* bad?" Cordelia pressed.

"Although she does have her own thoughts and emotions, I still believe the only way she could become actually evil, since she was created to help mankind, is if all of *us* suddenly were. As far as I know, none of us are." Giles ruffled Willow's hair and smirked. "I don't think kinky counts." The look on Wesley's face was worth a thousand words.

"She couldn't do an Angel, and lose her soul, could she?" Cordelia knew what she'd seen; she just had to find a way to make them understand it was possible, since they wouldn't be prepared for it if they thought it wasn't.

Willow, who'd gravitated to Giles' lap, waved her hand in the air. "Cordy, that'd be me. I'm the soul, and Unity can't even form without all four of us. That's why Travers tried to kill me, kill one of us, anyway, so Unity couldn't exist." She hopped up, responding to something Giles had obviously said through their link. "I'll get it." She hurried off into the kitchen.

"Tea," Giles explained. "Would anyone else like some? Wesley?"

"I suppose so," the younger ex-Watcher agreed, still a bit taken aback by all the changes in his mentor. He watched as Rupert apparently mentally communicated with the girl in the kitchen. "Isn't it a bit – noisy, sharing every thought?" he asked curiously.

"It was rather disturbing at first, when there were four of us – we couldn't hear ourselves think for a while. We even had to finish each other's sentences. We've developed more control since then. And the life-bond actually helps keep the stray thoughts down – Willow and I only hear each other, unless Xander or Buffy consciously makes an effort to reach us. We pretty much think together, so it really isn't like a second person talking in your head, most of the time." Wesley shook his head – as a bachelor for far less time that Rupert had been, he couldn't imagine the kind of forced togetherness this life-bond brought on, let alone what adjustments his former colleague had made. Still, he didn't seem to have any complaints…

Willow brought in the tea and handed him his cup. She kissed Giles as she handed him his own cup and settled back onto his lap. Wesley suddenly really missed Virginia.

"I think you guys need to be careful," Cordelia was insisting, still a bit miffed. "If she's a as strong as you say she is, she'd be really dangerous if she went bad."

They were all pretty much talking at once by now, and a couple of times, voices were raised a bit. The Parts of Unity were defensive to the last, while the two from LA held fast to the accuracy of Cordy's visions. No one heard the doorbell. Or the yelling. It was Cordy who finally looked up and noticed the man in black at the glass door that led to the pool. "Angel!" She jumped up and opened the door, inviting him in.

"Wow," Xander observed, "You got here quick." The vampire ignored him, all his attention on the blonde woman who'd let him in.

"Cordelia, are you okay? What's going on here?"

She brushed him away. "I'm fine – stop fussing. It was just a combination of the early hour I got up and post-vision headache. Oh, and there was a bit of information overload…" Her eyes widened, and Angel saw her 'get the big guy to do something' expression emerge. She smiled brightly at him before her eyes narrowed. "Maybe *you* can convince these idiots that their precious Unity could endanger their damned *lives,*" the May Queen hissed through a tight smile and locked teeth.

The quartet was halfway through their story before Angel realized he'd barely reacted to Buffy's presence. He felt a little bad about that, but he had been concerned about Cordy, and felt a bit justified. And then, they'd been tiptoeing around how exactly she and Xander, as well as Giles and Willow, had developed this 'connection' of theirs. With some surprise, he decided that it didn't hurt *too* much – she and Xander had been dancing around each other for years, and if they were now more than friends, he'd be happy for them. And the implications of that realization nearly scared him as much as the Great Evil that Cordy had predicted.

~**~

"Hey," Cordy greeted Angel, sticking her head in the door of his room. "Nice digs, huh?" She wandered inside and sat down on the bed. "You think we're doing the right thing in the wrong town or something? We piss off Wolfram and Hart enough that they try to kill us, and our office becomes confetti. They piss off the Watcher's Council enough that someone tries to kill them, and they end up with enough money to buy California. What's wrong with this picture?"

Angel shrugged. "Maybe things are finally going Buffy's way. It's about time they did."

"You don't seem too, um, broody, about the Slayer this time. You looked sad for a minute downstairs, but you seem okay now. I mean, she's, uhh…"

Cordelia saw the regret wash over Angel's face, then disappear like morning mist. "She's sleeping with Xander. I'm a big boy, Cor, I can connect the dots. I knew she'd move on sometime – after all, there was Riley before, too. And no one's ever loved her more than Xander did – still does, I can only assume. I'll probably always love her, but I think I'm glad it's him she ended up with. She could do worse. Remember when Spike came to visit and seemed to think he was going to make it with Buffy?" They shared amused laughter at the memory.

"So, what do you think? After all this time, did TPTB fire a dud with this one?"

Angel sat down beside her and took her hand. "I've never known your visions to be wrong, Cordelia. They're just too close to the problem to look at it objectively. I'll call Gunn and Kate – maybe together they can keep the office running while we stay here and keep an eye on this whole Unity thing." He patted her hand, then grew suddenly uncomfortable with their closeness, dropping her hand again and standing up. "You need to rest – you've had a tough day. We'll talk about it some more tomorrow."

She smiled widely at him. "You can be a pretty great guy when nobody's looking, you know that?" She spun on her heel and retreated to her own room. Angel followed her with his eyes until she was inside her door, then went to the phone and dialed Kate's number, hoping she'd still be up at this hour.

~**~

"Your check will be mailed as soon as I know the job was done correctly," Heinrich spat into the phone. He listened for a few minutes, and said menacingly, "I don't think you want to threaten me. You don't seem to be aware of with whom you're dealing." His very slight German accent increased with his ire. A few moments more passed, and his tone softened. "Of course. Thank you." He replaced the receiver with a bit more force than was needed, picking it quickly back up and dialing a memorized number. "The tools are in place," he assured the person on the other end, "but I may need you to clean up after the contractor." He wore an expression of strained patience. "I'm aware you told me so. Next time I'll use your in-house team. I'm still fairly new to this." Listening again, he had to ask. "You think it will start working that soon? Good." Pause. "Yes, precisely. We'll speak again when I arrive."

Ernst Heinrich turned to the nurse, who had been waiting patiently. "We'll need to up Mr. Travers' dose for a couple of days – I'm afraid travel might make him volatile again. I warned you when you were hired you might be needed on the road, so I hope you can pack quickly. Have you ever been to the States, my dear?"

~**~

Andrea Fairhope smiled reassuringly at the young mother before her, clutching her baby anxiously. "Sarah just has allergies, Mrs. Stansfield. She'll be fine if you switch her to soy formula – here's the name of one I recommend. Make a follow-up appointment with Clarice on your way out. I'd like to see her in a month to make sure that clears up the rash."

"Thank you, Dr. Fairhope. I feel much better." Andrea smiled until the woman was gone from the examining room, then her expression fell. Stupid people should not be allowed access to medical books, she decided. Katie Stansfield had decided her six-month old child had scarlet fever, based on the symptoms she'd read in a home medical guide, and just about knocked the door down demanding an immediate appointment. The doctor's face brightened again, though – even the most pig-headed parent in her pediatric practice was better than dealing with the Watcher's Council on a daily basis.

After the incident with Unity, Andrea found herself at odds with the very organization she'd spent most of her adult life working for. She'd seen clearly her part in the abuse of power, her cow-like willingness to do whatever they required, and she hadn't liked it one bit. It was only six weeks after her return to London before she could stomach their hypocrisy no longer, and she tendered her resignation. Although she knew that Quentin had acted without the approval of the full Council, she couldn't help but feel there was someone there who'd backed him, who'd actually sanctioned the plan to kill an innocent girl in order to keep the Council in control. That thought tainted her every dealing with the group, and she could finally stand it no longer. After she quit the organization, she'd returned to Sunnydale and quietly opened a pediatric practice. Her knowledge of the *real* reasons for many of the mysterious maladies that plagued the town's youth rapidly earned her a reputation as a miracle worker, and she kept her occasional use of supernatural cures as quiet as she could. But it felt good to be helping people instead of manipulating them, for once.

She also felt the need to keep an eye on Unity, and did so as subtly as she could. She'd gone to the foursome when she'd returned to California, letting them know just what had transpired between herself and the Council, informing them of her new life in Sunnydale, not wanting them to think she was watching them if they saw her on the street. Although she was - it was just due to her own feelings of responsibility for the quartet and their product, not for nefarious reasons. They'd been far more forgiving and welcoming than she thought she'd deserved. They'd even let her help them in their monthly examinations of the new home, checking for Council cameras and spells.

She'd not let them know that she'd been instrumental in convincing the Council to make monetary reparations to the four to make up for what had been done to them. The quartet had been suspicious, at first, but gentle persuasion, along with the fact that money was a concern for all of them, eventually won them over. If Andrea'd had her way, they'd have gotten even more than they did, although she had to admit, it was a healthy sum. She'd been invited to their new house early on, seen with satisfaction the arrangements, and melted quietly into the background of their lives for the most part, watching them, visiting once in a while, helping them when she could, but never interfering. She didn't trust her former employer, though, and made it a point to stay on top of whatever happened, watching carefully for any meddlesome intervention.

~**~

The next morning, Angel walked down the stairs cautiously, that enormous plate-glass window in the living room in the front of his mind. How he was going to get from the base of the stairs to the kitchen (also heavily windowed, he recalled from a brief visit) without getting fried was a major concern. He was pleasantly surprised to see quilts draped over the entire area, casting the expanse of the room into shadowy safety. His pleasure grew when he reached the kitchen and found it decorated the same way. Willow had come to his room last night to inform him that they had a small amount of blood in the 'fridge that they kept for Spike's visits, and they'd go out for a fresher supply in the morning. It was nice to feel so welcome. Even Xander had been more than civil to him last night, probably because he now had the woman that they'd both loved as his own, and felt he could be generous towards his former rival.

So the vampire wasn't expecting the greeting he received from the dark-haired young man when he met him at the refrigerator. "Dead Boy," Xander sneered, looking irritated.

Angel nodded. "Morning," he offered meekly. "Thanks for covering the windows."

"Yeah," came the reply in the same pissed-off tone, "Buffy and I did it before we went to bed. Didn't want dust on the furniture – maid service doesn't come till Wednesday." Xander grabbed his coffee mug and headed for the door. "If anyone needs me, I'll be outside in the *sun*," he announced in a superior way, and slammed the door behind him.

"Geez," came the voice from behind Angel, "Who put the starch in *his* shorts today?" Cordy came in, only her sleepy eyes marring her perfect look. She was dressed to the nines, her sporty gear obviously carefully matched and all accessories coordinated. Her makeup was flawless.

"Maybe he got up on the wrong side of the bed today," Angel shrugged. "You look a bit – less casual than usual."

"Must be the effects of the old neighborhood – I feel the need to chase after somebody named Jones." Pawing around in the cabinets, she finally found the one containing coffee mugs and poured herself a cup. "Mmmm – maybe we should hire Xander to make our coffee at the office – with all their money, he could afford to fly in every day." She looked over at him. "Want a cup?"

The vampire had already located the blood bag in the fridge and was pouring some into another mug. "No thanks, I'll have my traditional morning eye-opener today." He stuck it in the microwave and punched the buttons. "I talked to both Gunn and Kate last night, and they said they'd handle things as long as we needed them to. Now, how do we announce we want to stay for a while?"

"You just ask," Buffy said brightly from the door. "Miss the old hometown?" She walked over to Angel, ignoring Cordelia completely. "I've got lots of free time – we could get caught up and everything. We'd love it if you stayed." A rather petulant expression crossed her face, and then she pouted. "Xander wants to know if Cordelia is staying as well."

Seeing Buffy's apparent displeasure at the mere thought of Cordy around, Angel tried to diffuse the situation. "Yes, and Wesley, too, if you'll all have us."

Running her hand suggestively up his arm, she purred, "We'd *love* to have you." With a glare at the May Queen, she added, "All, I guess." Then she moved to the door Xander had left through and went out without any farewell.

Okay, now *that* was weirder yet," Cordy observed.

~**~