Part 7
He meant to push her away. He really, really did. It was wrong. It would be taking advantage - she was traumatised, obviously not thinking straight, and oh, ho wonderfully soft her lips were... Going against the screaming inside his mind, telling him to 'stop, leave the building, the country, if needs be!' Giles leant into the seer's kiss as all will power failed him.
As Cordelia kissed him, and her fingers played with the collar of his shirt, an alarm bell suddenly went off at the back of her head. At first quietly, then louder, and louder, until- "Angel!"
Their eyes snapped open at the same time as they both seemed to leap away from each other. Giles blinked a few times, took off his glasses, put them back on again, then turned a deep shade of crimson, all the while avoiding her eyes. Cordy clapped her hand over her mouth, having no clue as to how to articulate what she was feeling.
"I'm... I'm sorry, but, I... I can't, because Angel... Liam... I- I have to... I mean, I like you and all, and, and you're attractive, for an older guy, and I- I would, but I, I can't, because..."
"Do you love him?"
Giles' quiet question cut through her stuttering. Silence. Time seemed to still, and Cordelia froze as her mind span.
"Yes."
The revelation was a weight lifted from her shoulders. Giles sighed, and then smiled a small smile.
"Then what are you waiting for, Cordelia? Find him, and tell him! You might be surprised what effect such simple words can have." For a second, Giles looked profoundly miserable, and her heart went out to him.
"Giles, I'm so, so sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"I know. Neither did I. It was quite the... moment, and frankly, I'm a little embarrassed to have, to have allowed you to-" Cordy smiled, and awkwardly wrung her hands as another long silence ensued.
"You'll find someone, you know. I mean, you and Joyce were... but now she's - gone, and I'm just making this so much worse, aren't I?"
"I think your shouting another man's name was painful enough," he said with a wry grin. "It's not fair to lead a man on, you know..." Cordy narrowed her eyes at him.
"Oh, and you were just playing *so* hard to get, weren't you, Mr-"
"Good-looking Older Man?" he suggested.
"I was going to go with Mr Puts Innocent Young Girls into his Bed and..."
Just before Cordy could indeed make anything any worse, Wesley burst into the room.
"I found.. in the Almanac! The... I can't believe I didn't look there before! There's a ritual, and, we have to find, we have to get ingredients, and..."
"Woah, Wes, relax, speak *English*, not chipmunk," Cordelia said just as Wesley started to sound as if the tape had been put on fast forward.
"Ritual?" asked Giles. Wesley nodded as he tried to regain his breath.
"Yes, Shriffrin's ritual. It requires the skin shed from a Eysenck demon, mixed with some strange herb I'm unfamiliar with, Belladonna in its purest, powdered form, and... Rupert, are you wearing lipstick?"
Cordelia and Giles exchanged a guilty glance.
"I think... I have those things downstairs," he uttered before sweeping out of the room. Wesley looked at Cordelia, who looked back innocently.
"What?"
"We've been walking around in circles," Anya announced. "Look, that's where Xander fell over the tree root. And there's where he made the inappropriate joke about hedgehogs. And that's where he whispered to me that..."
"Anya. I don't think anyone else is interested," Xander hissed.
"She has a point, though..." Willow started.
"Hey, I'll have you know that our business is- our, business, and if I say I need to visit the drugstore to get some, certain, medication, it doesn't..."
"About going round in circles," Willow interrupted, as everyone else started to grin at him.
"Having some problems, are we, mate?" Spike smirked. "Trouble in the bedroom? Can't get it up?" Anya quickly interrupted.
"Oh, no, we have none of those problems. I even sometimes tire before he does. Xander forgot to pick up my prescription for... for those little pills, that stop you-"
"Urgh, enough, we get the picture," Willow interrupted. "Now, as much as we would like to hear about your sex life - which is not at all," she clarified as Anya looked eager to disclose details again, "I don't think Liam's here. He could be dead, I suppose, or a vampire again, which actually would solve a lot of problems, because the original Angel was a vampire, and if that happened, we'd be part way to having him back, and..."
"Willow, love," Spike interjected. "As much as I enjoyed being tormented by Angelus, I don't think that's a very good plan."
"Gotta agree with Fangless on that one," Xander said. "The only thing than Angel is demented Angelus, on his first killing spree."
"Yes, and I, I uh, I think I could live a long and healthy life without ever meeting that Angel," Tara added.
"I was only talking hypothetically," Willow huffed. "And anyway, I wouldn't even want to work that Thessulah mojo again, since, wow, painful."
"Guys, this doesn't really seem to be working. Maybe we should just head back for the magic shop, see what Giles and Wesley have come up with? Much as I hate to admit it, Anya's right - my navigational skills are way off today. I think I've seen that crypt three times now. Although, in Sunnydale, you never know..." Buffy said.
"Sounds like a bloody good idea to me," Spike said. "Traipsing round in circles always makes me feel - now, how would you say it, Slayer? - hungry and horny. Any volunteers?" Buffy rolled her eyes, as Xander clapped his hand over Anya's mouth.
"In your dreams, Spike," the slayer said.
"Oh, such a pretty picture, Slayer. Care to elaborate?" Buffy picked up her pace, and marched on ahead, Spike just behind. "Cocktease!" the group behind heard him yell, much to their amusement and Buffy's disgust.
"Ah, young love," Willow said, grinning.
Cordy marched on ahead of Giles and Wesley, who were having trouble keeping up. Having thrown the ingredients and the spell book into a her bag, she immediately swept out the shop, the two men at her heels.
"Are you sure you know where he went?" Wesley shouted forward to her.
"I'm sure," she answered. "At least, I hope I am..." The previous night, when she'd been unable to sleep, she'd listened to Liam's mutterings and cursings, which were loud enough to be heard throughout the shop. It had only just dawned on her what he had been talking about - something to do with snow, a view of the world, and an end. She thought back to that strange day that Sunnydale, California had seen the snow, and the stories she'd overheard Buffy tell her friends of finding Angel attempting suicide by sunlight, standing on a hilltop, and immediately realised where Liam had gone. Buffy must have shown him the place the other day - it was one of Angel's favourite spots, a rather picturesque vantage point from which you could see the whole of Sunnydale sprawled out across the horizon, all the way across to the hills opposite. When she'd been at high school, she'd often driven up to that spot with a date, even on occasion Xander; but it was easier to walk. And walking she was. Well, more like a cross between a walk and a sprint. She could hear Wesley start to pant for air, whilst Giles was slowly catching up to her. Fixing her eyes distractedly on the ground, she pondered the events of the day.
She loved him. She loved Angel. She kept saying it to herself, and wth every repetition, it made more sense. That was what that horrible, swirly feeling at the pit of her stomach had been when she'd had him replaced with Liam; not just upset at the loss of a best friend, but of the man she'd grown to love. That was why the growing feeling of despair had been so suffocating. It was all becoming clear, and at the same time more and less complicated.
She continued to muse as she stared at the grass. All of a sudden, there appeared to be a... foot, right in front of her. A foot encased in a stiletto boot, and black leather pants...
Buffy didn't even have time to yell in shock as Cordelia careered straight into her. The contents of Cordy's satchel were strewn about the floor as Spike helped Buffy up, and Giles and Wesley appeared at Cordy's side. She took the hand Giles offered her, and shakily stood up, as Wesley crawled about the floor, carefully tossing the items back in the bag.
"Buffy... Spike... we were just going to..." Wesley panted.
"Wesley found something!" Cordelia said. "Come on, I know where he is! Move it!" And she took off again, Buffy and Giles on her heels, as the rest of the Scooby gang and Wesley caught up to each other.
"What the lady said." Wes picked up the bag, and started to follow. The rest of the group exchanged bemused glances.
"They've all gone completely insane," Xander said. "The Hellmouth's finally gotten to them, and they've lost their minds."
As Cordy reached the top of the hill, she suddenly got the feeling that all was not well. Shining her torch about the area, she suddenly noticed a small object on the top of the hill. Buffy, Giles and Spike stood just behind her.
"What's that?" Buffy asked. Cordelia drew a sudden breath of air.
"Oh, oh... no... no!" She took off at a run towards the object, taking with her the failing torch.
Giles and Buffy were at a loss as to the cause of the seer's strange behaviour, but Spike, who could see slightly better in the now pitch black, had some idea.
"Uhm, ducks, I don't think it's so much a 'what' as a 'who'..."
As Wesley caught up, the group stood, frozen, staring in horror, as Cordy flung herself upon the huddled mass, whom they could now faintly hear babbling and moaning.
The huddled mass that was looking, as they stared for longer at it, like the crumpled up body of a certain Irishman.
"Liam..." breathed Wesley, dread seeping its way into his voice and his heart.
To be continued...