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Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah.
Words in indicate thoughts.
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Part 2: Add to the Confusion...
That got their
attention.
Xander looked up at her, his mouth forming an O of
surprise. Buffy and Giles too, seemed taken aback.
Even Willow and Oz pried their lips apart enough to stare at her
incredulously.
Cordelia took in their various expressions and added it to her list of
Things I Don't Quite Understand.
"What?" she asked, a little
unnerved. "What
are you all staring at? Do I have lipstick on my teeth or
something?"
Oz spoke up, still visibly shocked. "Cordy...you don't
swear!"
You've got to be kidding me.
"Hell? Hell? I've said worse things than
that before,
Oz, and maybe you haven't heard me, cause it's not like we hang much, but
if that's the reason you're all looking at me like I have toilet paper
stuck on my shoe, well then..." She glanced down just to make
sure. "Well then you can just get over
it!"
Gently displacing Willow off of his lap, Oz stood and walked
over to Cordelia's side. "Cordy, what's wrong?" he whispered, his
eyes anxious. He eyed her outfit and her made-up face, and his brow
furrowed in apparent concern. "Is this all because of the breakup? You know you
don't have to go to all this trouble..." he paused, clearly
embarrassed. "It's over, Cordy."
"If it's over, then why are
you with her?" she spat, pointing at Willow. The redhead merely looked at her with an expression of pity on her face.
Cordelia stopped talking, aware that something was
not quite kosher. She
looked over at Xander uncertainly, then back at
Willow.
And then it was Buffy's turn. The Slayer frowned and hopped off the table.
She too,
gave Cordelia's clothes a quick once-over, before putting her arm gently around
the brunette. "I think maybe the California sun was too much for her
today, guys. You know she's still weak from the fall."
"Oh, so it's the drugs, then? I thought she was acting a bit kooky..."
Buffy shot Willow a warning
glare, and the latter promptly shut her mouth and sulked.
Buffy directed Cordy to the empty seat beside Xander and took one on
the other side of her.
"Now, Cordy, why don't you tell us what's going on?"
At
the innocuous words, Cordelia's precarious hold on her temper
snapped. "That's what I want to know! One minute Xander is
making out with Willow behind my back, the next she's all over Oz's face!"
She turned to him now, her anger evident. "I thought you broke up
with her? What did she do, promise to be good? Promised never
to do it again? You must be more pathetic than I thought if you just let
that little wimp crawl back to you like that!"
"Hey!"
Cordelia ignored Willow's
outburst and whirled around to face Xander. "Does this mean you want
to get back together again? Is that why you were being Mr. Sensitive
today? Well, just because your redheaded girlfriend dumped you
doesn't mean I'm taking you back!"
"Cordy," interjected Xander
quietly, "Cordy, please. You're not making any
sense." He sounded very unlike the sarcastic Xander she knew.
Any moment now she would scream from the frustration of confusion.
Buffy looked over at Giles, worry written all over her face.
"Do you think it's temporary amnesia or
something?"
"More like temporary insanity." Willow laughed dryly. "All that research
must have made our little hacker crack. She
examined her nails carefully and grimaced. "It's not too good for my manicure
either."
Hacker? What is she talking about?
Cordelia examined her more carefully, noting the differences in her appearance for the first time. Willow was wearing lipstick... and mascara...and eyeshadow... and a really cute skirt-top ensemble that Cordelia had seen in the window of her favorite shop. Add strappy sandals and carefully-styled hair and you've got...
A trendy Willow...?
The redhead was still talking. "...perfectly
understandable, cause like, with all the
time she spends with her eyes glued to the computer, what do you expect?
I mean, what kind of creepy nerd has the morgue book-marked as
one of her favorite places on the Net?" Giles gave Willow a hard
look which she misinterpreted. "What? I know something about computers
too!"
Nerd?
Buffy stepped in, interrupting Willow's
tirade. "That's enough, Willow!" She glanced at
Cordelia, who had not said a word thus far. "Ignore her, Cordy.
It's only Willow."
Nerd???
Oz looked at Cordelia in concern. Despite the
makeup she was wearing Cordy? Wearing makeup? he noticed
that her face had gone pale.
He glanced at his girlfriend, who
looked indignant at having been told to shut up. She opened her mouth to
retort, but Oz squeezed her hand gently as an entreaty for her
to keep quiet. Willow's expression softened and she smiled lovingly
at him. Pain flashed through Xander's face at that, but he too, kept
quiet.
Buffy continued to try and coax a response out of Cordelia.
Giles cleared his throat and spoke up hesitantly, hoping that what
he was about to say would cheer the girl up somewhat. "I-it would do
you good to remember, Willow, that it has been thanks to Cordelia's
research on the, um, Internet that Buffy has been able to defeat so many
of the d-demons on the Hellmouth."
Willow rolled her eyes in
response. Cordelia, on the other hand, did something that she had
never done before. She fainted.
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Yeah,
yeah, so the fainting is a little
OOC. But give the poor girl a break, her world's been turned upside down.