This one moves around in time a lot. But I think it should flow well
enough. A grasp of SeaQuest episodes from season one would be good
here. An episode guide can be found
here...
__________

Los Angeles, California.
13 months later

The garden of the Hyperion Hotel was full. Several old faces and some
relatively new to LA were all milling around the barbecue, with hot
dogs and cheeseburgers.

Fred, Angel, Julie, Vi, and Cordelia were sitting in one group."So
he's okay? I mean, did he look okay?" Angel was questioning
Julie, the 18-year-old potential Slayer.

"Yes, he was okay," Julie said, annoyed. "Connor's fine. Relax, the
guy is better than fine with Rona! And even if he wasn't with her,
there are over 26 Slayers-in-training there. I don't think
he's going anywhere..."

Cordelia rolled her eyes at Angel's questioning. But the truth was
that ever since they had learned that Connor had shown up in Sunnydale
to fight demons, they had all breathed a big sigh of relief.

Five months of not knowing what had happened to the prodigal son, and
then they'd gotten a call from Willow. Angel had wanted to haul ass
over there at once of course, but Cordelia had convinced him that if
they did that, Connor would just run again. And from what they'd
heard the kid was in a nice, normal relationship with Rona, one of the
Potentials.

So much has changed in the last year or so, the now-brunette again
woman thought with a mental sigh.

Angel Investigations had gotten back to normal – well, as normal
as it ever got, and even gained six new people from Sunnydale. Most
notably, Andrew and Molly.

Andrew because he wanted to help make up for his past, and look good
to Dawn. And Molly…well, she was a little weird, any way you
sliced it. I swear, that woman has a picture of Xander in her
underwear drawer!

Cordy was pulled out of her thoughts, by Andrew's yelling from the
entrance to the hotel. "Hey, you guys should come here and see
this!"

Everyone came into the lobby, to see the TV on the cart by the
counter. Andrew had it on CNN, and "Breaking News" was
flashing on the screen.

"What's going on?" Gunn asked.

"Quiet," Angel told him, as Andrew turned it up.

The anchorman's voice filled the lobby. "We have just learned
that two more attack submarines have arrived at the site of the
confrontation, at the Livingston trench in the North Atlantic. That
brings the total to eight, now at this standoff."

"This is not good, kids," Lorne said. "I think I need a
drink. Nope, I know that I need one; our Lady of the Divine Seabreeze
is definitely calling my name here."

The same thought was more-or-less going through everyone's mind.
Another standoff was happening; ever since the technology had been
developed to colonize the ocean, it had become a free-for-all among
countless people to claim to pieces of the sea floor.

The worst areas were the undersea mining and drilling zones. There had
been many standoffs with various submarines; so far they would all
point at each other and try to look scary, and then go home.

But the most subs in any one such standoff had been five. That was
bad, but now there were eight!

"World War Three, here we come," Fred said quietly.

A reporter on board a Canadian sub cut in to the anchorman's
report, "We have something happening here!"

"What's going on, Mark?" the anchor asked worried.

"We're receiving very large sonar reading from inside the
trench.
Something huge is rising from it," the reporter told them.

Then suddenly, "It's the SeaQuest!"

As those words came through the TV, nobody present saw the large smirk
that came over Cordelia's face.

***

USS SeaQuest DSV – Main Bridge

"Tactical on viewer," Captain Marilyn Stark ordered. "And
open all tube doors, Mr. Harris."

"Aye, sir," came the reply as Lieutenant j.g. Alexander
Harris worked his controls under the red emergency lights.

The captain turned to Sonar. "Mr. Ortiz, full targeting sweeps.
Feed the data to Weapons. Let's wake them up here!"

"Aye, Captain," the young Cuban man said as he went to work.

Moments later, Xander spoke up as his screens lit up, "Multiple
targets acquired, Captain. I read eight shooter subs in the area
around us; attempting to distinguish who's who out there..."

"Negative," came the Captain's crisp reply. "Lock on
target for all subs."

Xander looked at her, as his `demon eye' suddenly started
itching; and over the last year, the young man had learnt to recognize
that as being a sign of upcoming disaster. Uh-oh, he thought to
himself,We're now talking danger, Will Robinson! "Uh,
Captain? We have allied ships out there!"

She gave him a cold look. "Carry out my orders, Lieutenant."

Xander nodded slowly as he shared a quick look with Commander Ford,
the boat's first officer. "Aye sir, locking on all targets.
Tubes are loaded and flooded."

Ford came up behind Stark, "Captain, I suggest we wait for
clear orders from NorPac Command before…"

Stark spun angrily to face him. "Clear orders!? Commander,
aren't you tired of this game!?" she waves her hand towards
the main screen full of 3-D subs. "They aim at us, and we aim at them. And
the whole world holds its breath! Look at this boat! We have the firepower
to end this cat and mouse game, once and for all! "

She was oblivious to the shocked looks of her crew as she continued,
"Mr. Harris. Ready firing sequence."

At Xander's hesitation, Stark moved over to him, "Mr.
Harris!"

Xander was saved when O'Neill at communications called out,
"Captain! I'm getting our orders from NorPac Command;
they're saying... do not fire! The other subs are receiving the same order, sir."

Everyone looked relieved; well, until Stark growled angrily, "They
have to learn that the only way to secure peace is with strength!"

She started pressing buttons on the weapons console, as Xander watched
his C.O. in utter shock. "Captain!?"

Within moments, the computer voiced spoke. "Full torpedo spread
armed."

Captain Stark flipped open the red plastic cover over the main launch
switch. Her hand was intercepted seconds from hitting it, by both
Xander's and Commander Ford's wrists. She looked at them both
with fury, and was about to speak...

"Captain Stark," Ford started. "Under Article 20, Section
8 of NorPac regulations, I am hereby relieving you of command..."

***

San Francisco, California: Apartment of Xander Harris.
One month later

The newly promoted full Lieutenant Xander Harris was talking on his
cordless phone. "That's great, Katie! But now, I'm going
to have to call you sir!"

He listened to the woman on the other end, "Well, yeah, but I
think you can handle being around Ben again. Wait…so Pearl is for
sure where the new home port will be?"

After a few more minutes, Xander hung up the phone. "Three more
days, and it's off to Hawaii for a crap-load of refits. Can't
wait," he said to himself sarcastically, as the man looked at the
new uniform hanging on his bedroom door. Next to it was a black jacket
with a large symbol, along with the letters U.E.O. on it.

Xander then looked up, surprised, when he heard knocking on his front
door. He gave the clock a quick glance, Three a.m.? Who could that be
at three o'clock in the morning? he wondered.

The UEO officer opened the door, and was shocked at who he saw.

Standing in front of him was Cordelia Chase. And she was a total
mess.

Cordy looked as bad as Xander had ever seen her. Her hair was all over
the place, her makeup was smeared, and she looked like she had been
crying a lot. But the newly-minted Lieutenant Harris had no time to
comment on her appearance, before she fell into his arms and started
crying.

Twenty minutes later, Xander came out of the kitchen with two mugs. He
handed one to Cordelia, who was on the couch with her knees pulled up
to her chest. She just smiled at him slightly, as she took the mug and
sipped the hot chocolate.

"You remembered I like those little colored marshmallows,"
the former cheerleader sniffed, as she wiped her nose.

"Yeah, you bet," Xander told her as he sat down next to her.
His eye wasn't itching, so this was a good sign. "So, you
ready now to tell me what happened?"

She looked at him in silence for a few minutes. He could see the pain
in her eyes...

"I didn't know where else to go," Cordy said finally, as
she kept looking at her cocoa. "I couldn't talk about this to
any of my friends in LA, and it's been too long for the other people in
Sunnydale. I just knew to come here, to come to you."

She looked up. "You know Angel and I have gotten more than a bit
serious lately, right?"

"Yeah. I've read your emails," Xander shrugged.

"Well…" Cordy started, then stopped to grab a Kleenex.
"We had amassive fight with a newly-discovered group of the
Scourge today. Angel got hurt…" she started to cry. "God, I lost
Doyle to those bastards and now Angel almost dies too?!"

Xander set his mug on the coffee table, and moved over to her. He
wrapped his arm around her, trying to help... "What exactly
happened,Cor?"

She leaned into him, and buried her head in his shoulder. "Angel
and I got back to the hotel…we were so happy that we'd all
made it out alive. We were making out in his room, when…"

"When what?" Xander's eyes then went wide, "Oh my God – did you, uh-"

Cordy got angry. "Hey, I can control myself! Because I'm not
Buffy!" she yelled, almost sarcastically to herself. "We got
carried away, I'll admit that. Before I knew what was happening, I had my
top and bra off and he was almost naked. I was lying on top of him,
when…" the woman started to cry again.

Xander just held her, already guessing what she was going to say.

"We were doing some very R-rated stuff, then I just got this
flash of junior year. The night Buffy was sick, remember that? And
Angelus jumped on top of me…I swear, it was as if I saw his fangs
allover again in my mind! Jesus, I almost let Angelus loose, Xander
– I almost gave him a happy!" she broke down once more.

"Cor? He was definitely still Angel, when you left?" Xander
tried to ask delicately.

"Oh yeah. I think he realized it, right when I did. God, I just
grabbed my clothes and ran out. And that was hours ago," she told
him sadly.

The former class clown ran his hand up and down her arm, as he let go
of her. "Cor, we should call your friends and tell them
you're okay –they'll be worried..."

"NO!" she yelled. "Please, Xander," Cordelia begged
him. "I can't. At least, not right now. If Angel knows
I'm here, he'll come to see me. To talk to me about what happened. And I can't
deal with that right now..."

"Okay," Xander gave in. "Look, I'll call Tim on the
SeaQuest. He's on the night shift tonight, reworking some
systems. He can send out an untraceable call to LA, just to tell them you're
alright. Or else you know that I'm going to be getting a call
within the hour, from Willow; and I don't want to lie to my friend."

"They won't know who it is?" she asked him hopefully.

"Nope, no chance. No way for any caller ID or a voice to be
recognized. Look, I'll even tell Tim exactly what to say,"
Xander told the woman, as he watched her yawn. "Hey, you're
tired. Why don't you take my bed and get some sleep? I'm sure I have an
old shirt or something you can use."

***

Los Angeles, California. The Hyperion Hotel.

Fred answered the phone. "Cordelia?!" she asked quickly.

Her face fell at the sound of the male voice, "Uh, no. But
I'm a friend. And Cordelia is fine."

Those words caused her to get serious. "Who is this? Where is
she?!" The others looked sharply over to her.

"Hey, don't yell at me! Look, lady, I gotta get back to work
– so spare me the hysterics. Cordelia's fine – and
that's all I'm supposed to say. She doesn't want her friends to be
worried, so I was asked to call you people. She'll be calling you herself in a
day or so. Goodbye." And the line went dead.

Fred checked the caller ID window, but it showed nothing. So the
brunette woman did the only thing she could do; she got out her cell
phone. "Angel? We have news..."

***

One of many San Francisco Denny's.
The next morning.

"So, she was going to open fire on everyone?! She was nuts enough
to fire on her own allies, and start World War Three?!"

Xander looked nervously around the restaurant. It was fairly empty
this time of morning, and he thanked his God for that. "Cor!"
he hissed. "Keep it down, will you? They don't want it public
knowledge that Stark went off the deep end, a bit."

Her face scrunched up. "Sorry. It's just that – well, all
the crap we've gone through over the past eight years, and she
nearly blows it all to hell for no reason?! So what happened to her?"

Xander took a bite out of his scrambled eggs. "She stayed on
board for a bit. The brass recommended some anger management
counseling at the very least, but she just took off one night when we
were in dock."

"Great," Cordelia muttered. "Another weirdo out there
somewhere."

"Well, she always was kinda high-strung. A lot of the younger
crewmen was scared shitless of her."

A smile showed itself on Cordy's face. "And you weren't?"

Xander shook his head. "Hey, I lived through Buffy's little
power trips over the years, remember? Compared to that, Stark was
nothing. And besides, if I could survive being the bag carrier during
your many shopping sprees back when we were dating, I can handle
almost anything."

Cordelia laughed as she reached over the table, and playfully smacked
his arm. "Hey! I had to endure your comic book conventions as
well!"

"Sure," Xander shook his head. "The ones that were in big
cities near large malls, as I recall."

"But at least I went to them!" Cordelia pointed out, as she
took a bite out of her omelet. "Oh, oh! Do you remember that guy
who wanted me to pose for that comic character?"

"The X-men one shot?" Xander asked.

"Yep. I can't believe it, but Andrew went to this shop in LA
and found a poster of the character of me! And I still don't know
you talked me into letting him take a few pics of me to draw from."

"Sure, Cor. You really complained that millions of teenage boys
would see you as a pin-up girl."

A quick giggle. "You know me too well, dorkhead. But hey, can you
believe they want my character in a new comic series they're
going to do? I met with the lawyer types, and they're going to
pay me for using my likeness. And I get every issue free! Andrew is like so
jealous that I'm an X-man now."

They both laughed. "Well, you'll have to tell me when I can
get my first copy for you to autograph." Xander smiled at
her.

She looked nostalgic. "An autograph. God, I haven't done one
of those since I did that lame horror movie."

"Hey, at least your name was in the credits!"

"Yeah, but being listed as Bimbo number two didn't help the
old career much, other than an offer to pose for Playboy," she
told him with a scowl.

Xander almost choked on his food. "You got an offer to pose for
Playboy?!"

"Please, you think I would ever stoop to Baywatch tactics? Yeah, I
don't think so," Cordy told her ex matter-of-factly.

"Maybe you should," the former Zeppo shrugged. "I can see
it now. Cordelia Chase. Demon Hunter. Just you naked, a bearskin rug,
a roaring fire, and a broadsword..."

"Oh, in your dreams pal!" she laughed.

"Actually, I think I did have that dream back in high
school," Xander mused to himself, briefly shaking his head.

Cordelia blushed slightly. "You didn't!"

"Cor? I was going out with not only the head cheerleader, but
also the hottest girl Sunnydale High ever produced. It would be more
weird if I hadn't had dreams like that!" he said with another
shake of the head.

That caused her to blush even more. "Since when did you become
such a smooth talker, Mr. Harris?"

He shrugged. "It has been a while, Ms. Chase. But I had to grow
up one day, we all did eventually."

"Yeah," she said sadly. "But I've come to the
conclusion that growing up sucks, Xander. There's so much
pain…"

He reached over and took her hand. "It's okay, Cordy. You
have to take the good with the bad. If you didn't, it
wouldn't make the good parts worth it."

She met his eyes with hers. "I know. It just hurts too damn
much..."

***

From the Diary of Cordelia Chase.

I got back to LA last night, after I saw Xander off onto the SeaQuest
in Hawaii. Yeesh, but that ship is freaking big! Wish I could have
gotten a look inside her. But it was so good to talk to him again, it
had been too damn long. And you know what? I realized he's my best
friend. If Xander can have two best friends with Buffy and Willow, as
of now so do I with Xander and Angel.

He did give me one thing, though; a vidlink. It's like this tiny
videophone thing. It's only a ten-inch screen, but it's
really cool. He says we can talk and send video letters to each other,
and the satellites can find it wherever it is on the planet.

Now, onto the bad stuff. I had a long talk with Angel; I still love
the guy, but one of us has to be the adult here. It won't work.
And I swear the waterworks were in full gear, when I told him that. He
didn't deal well, it's like he had a severe case of
"Buffy-face" when he realized it was over.

In the back of my mind I think I always knew that it would come to
this, but Lord knows I've been alone for so long. And I do NOT
count Connor on my list of boyfriends.

And now that I brought up that particular subject, I'm going to be
seeing a lot of him. I'm moving back to Sunnydale; well, only for
a little while. Just enough to let things calm down a bit between
Angel and me. Giles says I can help out at the Sunnydale Watchers branch
that they built on the outskirts of town. I mean, I even get an
office!

***

Office of Cordelia Chase
Council of the new Watchers – Sunnydale Office.

Cordy had watched Xander's video letter several times, before
she'd saved it to her external hard drive on her desk. Now, she
was
staring out at the dark night sky from the fifth floor office.

That bitch! the young woman thought, as she watched the rainstorm
going on outside the windows.

Stark actually killed dozens of innocent people, just so she could
bait the SeaQuest into some damn trap?! Xander could have been killed!
Well, I don't think I want to know how Stark disabled a boat like
that, but at least Xander likes his new captain.

***

From the Diary of Cordelia Chase.

I think poor old Giles is going to have a heart attack, as Dweeb Boy
and his shipmates found something. And when they stumble onto
something, boy do they really stumble onto something! Like, some part
of the Great Library of Alexandria. It's been all over the news,
on every channel, in every country.

They're saying that what they find in there could change
everyone's views of world history, or whatever. But onto the
really good stuff; it seems that they found a room that has a crap-load of
demonology books and scrolls. Xander talked to Noyce, and none of it
will be released since some of the spells there might be able to nuke
the world or something equally bad.

Giles, Wesley, Willow, and a bunch of Watchers are heading to a hanger
at Pearl Harbor to study them. From what I've heard, if just some
of the stuff they found ever fell into the wrong hands…well,
let's just say it would not be of the good. Giles talked to
Xander, and some books that have been thought lost for centuries are just
sitting on shelves waiting to be translated.

***

UEO SeaQuest – Bridge
04:37 hours ship time.

"It wasn't a dream!" Captain Nathan Bridger told the
scientist next to him. All of the crew looked at him, with a stare
that said maybe the Captain had hit his head a little too hard this
time.

All but one, that is.

"So, there were two people? One that wants help and one that
doesn't?" Lieutenant Xander Harris asked. "Huh, sounds
like a classic haunting case to me."

Commander Ford looked at him. "Don't tell me you believe in
ghosts, Harris?"

Xander nodded his head. "Believe in them, and even seen 'em a few
times. One actually tried to get a very good friend of mine to kill
herself."

Everyone looked at him in incredulity.

"You mind explaining that?" Captain Bridger asked.

Xander sighed. "This friend of mine got a very nice apartment in
LA, a few years ago. Turns out she got it so cheap, because of all the
deaths that had happened in it."

"Deaths?" Lucas Wolenczak asked.

"Oh, yeah. See, when the apartment building was first built way
back when, the people who lived there was this mother and her
twenty-something son. The mom was a complete wacko, and didn't
like her kid moving out to get married. So she tied up the guy, and
then walled him up alive in her apartment so that he wouldn't
leave her," Xander told the boy as he watched everyone stop and stare
at him.

"Are you serious?!" Krieg asked him.

Xander looked at him. "Why would I lie about something like that?
Especially now?"

"There's more, isn't there?" Bridger asked, getting
into the story.

"'Fraid so," Xander responded. "The mom dropped dead of a
heart attack 30 seconds afterwards, and her soul didn't go to
Heaven as you might expect. Well, after that, any time a single woman would
rent the apartment? The ghost of the mother would think she was the
girl trying to marry her son. So she talked to them, like all the
time. Whispered to them while they slept. She got at least three that
I know of, to commit suicide. Usually, by hanging themselves."

The former Scooby member saw the sick look on Doctor Westphalen's
face as he continued, "My friend moved in, and right away she
heard things. One day she was at her office when she gets a phone call from
another friend, saying he was at her apartment. She goes over, but
turns out it was just the mom's ghost tricking her. The other
friend found out and ran over to find my friend crying, and about to hang
herself from the rafters. He got her down, and there was this big
fight after Momma Ghost got a little pissed she didn't kill
herself."

"If this is all true…" Ford said, still not really believing.
"...don't tell me she still lives there?"

"Oh, she did for a few years. See, the ghost of the son came back
and kicked the crap out of dear old mommy. After that, Dennis –
that's the son's name – became a ghost roommate of hers.
They got along great. Except that he would watch TV very late at night,
sometimes."

"You have got to be screwing with us," Krieg said to his
friend.

Xander shrugged. "Come to LA next leave with me, and see for
yourself. Dennis likes to show off."

Before Krieg could say anything, Lieutenant Ortiz called out,
"Captain! I'm getting a big echo, really big."

"On screen, Mr. Ortiz," Bridger ordered with one last glance
at Xander.

The main screen showed sonar sweeps over the area under SeaQuest. A
long shape took form on the top of the screen.

"WSKRS view," Bridger ordered.

The screen changed to a view from one of the ocean probes or WSKRS
that traveled outside the ship. The camera came slowly up on the
object.

"Holy-" Xander exclaimed, as he saw what it was. "A
cruise ship! It looks like Titanic-era style."

The WSKRS went around the rear of the upright, and in perfect
condition ship. The white letters of the name were still visible
enough to be read.

"Oh my God!" Chief Manilow Crocker exclaimed. "It's
the George!"

***

UEO SeaQuest – Wardroom
05:30 hours ship time

Bridger hit the control, and an X appeared far way from another X on a
map on the screen. "The George went down a full 600 miles from
there! There is no way a group of life boats could have traveled that
far in two days!"

"I don't know how to explain it, Cap," Crocker told him.
"It's probably why no one ever found her. No one thought to
look this far out."

"There was a woman," Bridger stated firmly, as he remembered
his visit from the two ghosts on his quarter's hologram program.

"I'm afraid not, Captain. Everyone survived but the Captain
and the Chief Engineer."

"There was a woman!" Bridger said again.

"Ah, Captain, if I may?" Lieutenant Krieg asked, as he
reached past Xander to grab the screen controls. "I found some
archive footage in the disc encyclopedia. Not much, just this home movie made
by the ship's owner."

A black and white film started on the screen. It showed the RMS King
George setting sail, on its maiden voyage.

After a while, the screen showed the George's captain and its
chief engineer talking with a very attractive young Englishwoman. She
seemed to be getting along great with the engineer, even they could
tell without any sound to back it up. Krieg paused the screen, when
the intercom buzzed.

"Yes?" Bridger spoke.

Lieutenant Commander Hitchcock's voice came through, very excited.
"Captain, you have got to see the images the HR probe is sending
back!"

"We're on our way Commander," Bridger said as he got up.
Almost as one, most of the people left the room and head for the
Maglev to the Bridge. Doctor Westphalen stayed back with Bridger
though, looking at the paused screen. "I think she's the
nanny."

"Why wouldn't she have been on the manifest?" Bridger
asked.

Westphalen mused, "He's the owner of the ship. Maybe it was a
last-minute decision to bring her, and she was left off the
manifest."

Bridger started to turn towards the door, when Westphalen gasped. He
turned to see…

On the screen the still-paused image of the old film changed. The
image of the George's captain, whose head was facing away from the
camera, moved. Nothing else in the picture did. Only his head. It
turned around and stared at an angle, as if watching the
SeaQuest's captain and the doctor.

After several seconds of staring at the screen, Bridger reached and
shut off the film. The U.E.O. logo replaced it, as it always did.

"Come on," Bridger told her, as he led Westphalen out of the
room.

***

UEO SeaQuest – Bridge
05:45 ship time

"Put it on both screens, Commander," Bridger ordered.

The main screen changed to show what Lieutenant Commander Hitchcock
was seeing, from the HR probe she was controlling outside the wreck of
the RMS King George underneath them.

An image of the first smoke stack appeared. "The stacks are
sealed."

Crocker spoke up, "Those are Hardboard Covers. It was an
innovation of the George. They were supposed to retract, once they
were at sea..."

"Well, they're closed here," Hitchcock said with a grin.
"Which means the engine room might not be flooded. The George is
most likely full of air pockets. Then there's this…" she moved to
show what else she found on the starboard side of the ship.

"A light coming from this porthole."

Everyone looked shocked at the main screen. A porthole had a light
shining out of it.

"Not possible," Ford stated.

"And not a dream," Bridger said to the people who'd
accused him earlier of dreaming about the ghosts in his quarters.

"This is incredible," Hitchcock whispered.

"It's more incredible than you think, Commander. That ship
has been down here for almost a hundred years. That ship is
haunted," Crocker said like a true old-time sailor.

Xander saw the look in Bridger's eyes. "You want to try and
board her, don't you sir?"

Bridger smirked at him. "Well, they wanted us here for a reason.
We might as well see what it is. You coming, Lieutenant?"

"You think I'd miss this? Sir, I'm coming."

***

LA warehouse
2:18 am pacific time

Angel dusted the last vamp, as soon as Molly shoved it over to him.
"Is that all of them?"

"Yeah. All fifteen of them," Molly told him, panting.

"Where's Cordelia?" the ensouled vampire asked.

Gunn looked around, but saw no trace of her. "She was here a few
minutes ago."

"Cordy!"

"Geez, Angel, you don't have to yell!" came
Cordelia's voice from another room.

They all turned to see Cordelia with a twelve-year-old blond-haired
girl, holding her hand. And as soon as the little girl saw Angel, she
screamed and hid behind Cordy.

The others looked confused, before Cordy groaned. "Angel. Your
`grr' face?"

Angel quickly morphed his face back to its human appearance, as
Cordelia turned and kneeled down to face the terrified girl.
"It's okay, honey. He won't hurt you, he's a good guy. He's not
like the others."

Angel stepped forward slightly, but backed off when the girl
whimpered. "I'm sorry I scared you. My name's Angel.
I'm a vampire, but, uh, I don't hurt people. I won't hurt you."

"It's okay, I trust him," Cordy told the girl. "I
promise he won't hurt you."

The girl nodded, very nervously. Angel shot Cordelia a look, but she
just mouthed `later' to him.

***

UEO SeaQuest – Lieutenant Alexander Harris's Quarters

Xander glanced at the picture on his second monitor. It showed
Cordelia with a young twelve-year-old girl. Cassidy. Cordelia had her
arms wrapped protectively around the girl, who almost had a smile on
her lips.

"You two seem to be getting along pretty well, Cor."

His friend in LA sighed, as she nodded on the screen. "It's
just that she's had such a screwed-up life, Xander, and she's
only twelve and a half! Her parents die when she was two, leaving her an
orphan. Then the orphanage is attacked, and some of her friends get
killed by vampires while she watched! My heart just goes out to
her."

"Mine does too, Cordy. But are you sure you're ready for a
big step like this? I mean you haven't told her yet, right?
Don't want to get her hopes up if it doesn't work out?" he asked her.

"Trust me, Xander, I've thought about this for a week now. I
want to do it. Everyone here's agreed to help out – they all
love her. And don't worry, I already had a very long talk with Giles
about it. He wanted to be sure that I was able to handle this," she
replied.

"But you know what this is gonna mean, Cordy," Xander said
with a sigh. "No more – or a helluva lot less – demon
fighting for you. She doesn't need to have another person taken away from
her, if some vamp or demon got lucky."

"I know, Xander, but I think me and her both need this right now.
After what happened with Connor, when he was a baby…" the woman
trailed off.

"I know that it wasn't easy for you to lose the baby boy that
you thought of as your own son, Cor. But I know you'll make a good
mom for Cassidy, Cordelia Chase," Xander told her simply.

She smiled a thousand watt smile at him. "Thanks, Xander. That
means a lot."

"I speak only the truth, Cor." the UEO officer grinned back.
"You'll make a heckuva mom…well, now that you've mellowed out a bit.
Because during junior high, I used to freak when Jesse would talk
about you and him having kids together."

"He talked about me and him having kids?!" Cordelia asked,
shocked. "But we were barely even 15 years old! And I hardly knew
him!"

Xander shrugged. "What can I say? He had a crush. You've seen
from first-hand experience how much a crush can mess up a guy,"
the man who had once loved Buffy Summers said, as he looked down.

"Xander," Cordelia said firmly. "Remember only the good
times. I'm going to have to smack you upside the head, next time I see you."

He laughed. "Always good to have something to look forward
to."

****

Aboard the Carnival Cruise ship `Sea Dream'. In the A deck
Ballroom. Four and a half weeks later.

Cordelia Chase was pissed.

No. To say that she was just pissed, would be an understatement of
massive proportions.

The thing was, that Giles had arranged for the new Council to fund a
small cruise trip for her, Cassidy, Dawn, Molly, and Fred. To give
Cassidy a taste of something fun.

And everything had been going fine, until they'd wandered into a
bad action movie.

Pirates. Goddamn pirates.

Cordy couldn't believe it. She had laughed when Xander had told
her last year, that nowadays any idiot and his mother with the money
to
buy a sub had started robbing cruise ships.

But it wasn't funny now that a crap-load of people were being
crammed into the ballroom, while the ship was being ransacked. Molly
had heard the radio operator talking to the ship's captain; he
thought they'd gotten an SOS out.

Still, there were no ships on the horizon, in any direction.

Goddamned pirates!

***

Commander Jonathon Ford, along with the rest of his boarding party,
pressed his body along the wall of the engine room of the Sea Dream.
They had picked up the ship's SOS an hour ago; a US Navy ship was
on the way, but it was Ford and his party's job to take them out
before they spotted the Navy ship. Or the bad guys would take
hostages, and a bloodbath might erupt.

The other team had already taken control of the enemy sub. Darwin the
dolphin had swum right up to it, and taken out their bulky
transmitter.

Well, in the enemy's defense, not many pirate sub sonar operators
considered dolphins a threat. That had allowed Lieutenant Harris and
his group to board and subdue the vessel.

Now, all Ford had to do was take out ten more pirates.

A sound caused him to look back down the corridor from where they had
come from. Before the pirate even saw them, four stun shots had hit
him in the upper chest.

One down, nine to go.

***

Cordelia looked towards her adopted daughter, but Cassidy was holding
up better then she'd thought she would.

Still, this was another traumatic experience to give her little girl
even more damn nightmares. Cordy was about to throw down with the
pirate leader, who was living up to his job by doing the normal
leering at all the women in the room...

But suddenly, the large patio doors on both sides of the room burst
open, green fire shooting out in quick and rapid secession. Within
moments, the eight pirates were on the ground or getting the snot beat
out of them by the passengers.

"Everyone, calm down! I'm Commander Jonathon Ford, UEO Navy.
Is everyone alright?" the lead man said, as the group came fully
into the room.

Ford? Hey, isn't that…

But Cordelia's thoughts were cut off when one of the men shouted,
"Commander! I'm only counting eight bodies here!"

Damn it! Ford swore in his head. "All right, fan out and find
the last…"

He was cut off by the sound of a pulse rifle powering up. And by the
sound, the UEO officer knew it was not set on stun.

Everyone turned to see the last pirate, a man who couldn't be
over 25, who had taken a hostage. Molly.

"Lower your weapons now!" he called out as he pressed the
rifle to her head.

"Okay, take it easy," Ford told him, as he slowly set his
pulse gun on the deck. The other UEO people followed his lead.

"I want out of here now!" the man yelled. "Me and her are
going to board my sub, and leave. And you're not going to try to
stop us."

Ford shook his head. "I can't let that happen."

"You'll do it, or she dies!" he yelled frantically.

"I can't let you leave this ship…"

Molly, potential Slayer that she was, had gotten tired of playing the
helpless girl in distress. So she elbowed the man in the stomach, and
shot up her fist and nailed in him in the face. While he was
distracted by the pain, she dived out of the way.

As soon as she was clear, a shot came out from a stairway door. It hit
him, and the pirate went down fast. Everyone looked over and saw
another figure in a black SeaQuest jump suit. Lieutenant Xander
Harris.

***

Five minutes later Ford was talking to Xander next to the stage at the
rear of the ballroom, when the LA group came over.

"Ahem!" Cordelia said, causing everyone to look at her.

Ford was confused. "Can I help you, Ms.-?"

But she wasn't listening. She went right to Xander, and smacked
him upside the head.

The two SeaQuest security men raised their weapons instantly, and
pointed them straight at Cordelia. But Xander waved them off,
"It's okay! Stand down," So they slowly lowered their
guns.

"I did owe you that one, Xander Harris!" Cordelia said
simply, before she drew him into a hug.

"I guess you did at that, Cor," the UEO officer replied, as he
returned the hug.

The seer looked at him after a few seconds. "Tell me something.
Why do we always seem to meet after some traumatic event? It's getting
annoying! I'm starting to feel like the wife that has to be saved
all the time, in the Die Hard movies."

This caused a laugh between them. But before he could respond, Molly
came and pulled Xander into a tight hug. "You saved my life,
Xander. Again! Thanks," she said in her British accent, as she
kissed him on the check.

Ford saw Cordelia roll her eyes at Molly's actions, but limited
himself to making a mental note to ask Xander about it later.

Xander then felt a tug on his arm, as he looked down and saw Cassidy.
She stood just above his waist, "Are you really Xander
Harris?" the girl asked him.

"Uh, yes I am," he responded slowly.

The girl looked him in the eyes. "Cordelia, she says you're
still hot."

A horrified look crossed Cordy's face at hearing that. But she
turned a deep shade of red as Xander told Cassidy, "Well, I think
she's still pretty hot herself. But don't tell her, okay?
Don't want her to get a big ego now, do we?"

Cassidy nodded, as Ford and the two security guards laughed at that.
Cordelia just glared daggers at Xander.

Ortiz came over at that moment to Ford and Xander. "The SeaQuest
is coming in a minute on the port side. The captain wants to know if
there are any people that need medical attention?"

Ford led Ortiz to a few people who were injured. And as soon as they
were gone, Xander leaned down to Cassidy. "Hey, you wanna see
something cool?"

The girl nodded quickly, so Xander lead her out to the portside
railing. "Okay, now, just watch the water," he told her, as
Cordelia and the other women came out to join them.

"What am I watching for?" the girl asked, confused.

Xander was scanning the water, when he suddenly pointed.
"There!"

They all looked, just in time to see a huge arrowhead-shaped bow surge
out of the water.

"COOL!" Cassidy cried, as the rest of the SeaQuest came out
of the water a few feet and then came crashing back down, creating a
very large splash.

After the ship came to rest on the surface with the upper half
sticking out, Cassidy turned and asked, "Can they do that
again?!"

Xander laughed, as Dawn looked at the ship. "How long is that
thing?"

"Over a thousand feet long," he told her.

"She's a cool ship," Cassidy said, as she watched the
SeaQuest.

"Actually, she's a he," Xander corrected her.

"I thought ships were girls?" the twelve-year-old asked in
confusion.

"Normally, they are. But our Chief Engineer says that she thinks
the SeaQuest is a he."

Her eyes went wide. "Your engineer is a girl?!" she asked,
surprised.

"Yep. Her name's Katie," Xander told her.

"Could I be like her one day?" the child asked him.

Xander looked down at her. "You can be anything you want to be,
kiddo. Anything."

For her part, Cordelia was enjoying the dialogue between Cassidy and
Xander. She'd been worried for a time, that they wouldn't get
along. But Xander obviously still had the big kid from high school
within him...

Ford came over a few minutes later. "Xander?"

"Yes, sir?" he turned.

"This ship is going to return to port in a few hours…"

Ford stopped talking, when a cry came from Cassidy and she buried her
face into Cordelia's side. Xander shot her a confused look.

"She's been really looking forward to this trip," Cordy
told him with a shrug.

Xander thought for a few moments, then turned to Commander Ford.
"Sir. I need to talk to you for a minute?"

The women watched them walk over a ways down the deck. Ford seemed
surprised by what Xander was saying, and quickly stared back at them
with a sympathetic look. Then he took out a device that they guessed
was a communicator. Both military officers talked into it for a few
minutes, before they came back to the group.

Xander had a smile on his face. "It's just you five on this
trip, right?" he asked Cordelia.

"Yes…" she told him, not sure what he was getting at.

"Well," Xander said. "The SeaQuest was in the area
following a pod of killer whales and we're going back to doing
that,then we have a stopover in San Francisco for a supply run. I'm
just wondering if you ladies would want to come with us for two days?"

Everyone looked at him, stunned.

Cassidy looked at him. "We can go on that?!" she asked, as
she pointed to the SeaQuest.

Xander nodded. "We don't have a video arcade or shuffle
board, but I'm sure we have a few things that you could do
instead."

The blonde girl got really excited, as she looked up to Cordy.
"Can we, Cordelia? Can we, please?"

Cordelia, Fred, Dawn and Molly looked at each other and they all
slowly nodded. "Sure."

"Yes!" the girl yelled, as Xander and Ford laughed.

***

SeaQuest shuttle MR-4

Xander sat with the others in the passenger area of the shuttle; and
Cassidy sat with Cordelia, next to him. The young girl's eyes
were on the small screen that showed the shuttle heading towards the
circular opening on the massive submarine.

After they docked, Xander led them up a ladder and into a large
greeting area. When they all came up the docking ladder, they saw an
older man with gray hair and a young teenage boy around sixteen.

"Welcome aboard SeaQuest," the man said, as he shook
Cordelia's hand. "I'm Captain Nathan Bridger. And
this..." he pointed to the teenager. "...is Lucas Wolenczak."

Cassidy blushed as she saw the teenage boy, causing Cordelia to smile.
Oh no. Her first crush.

Fred grinned. "Wow, the real Lucas Wolenczak."

Dawn turned to her. "You know of him?"

Fred nodded, in her sometimes-geeky way. She smiled, "I read your
paper on molecular bonding when you were at Stanford."

This causes Lucas to smile. "Really?"

Xander was laughing at the start of the flirtation. "Ah,
Lucas?"

The teenager looked to Xander after a few moments. "Yeah,
Xander?"

"I was thinking maybe we could introduce Cassidy to Darwin.
I'm sure she'd love him, and I'm guessing Fred would
too."

"Ah, right, Darwin," the kid said, already seeing how he
could impress Fred more. "This way, then."

After a short ride in the Maglev, the car stopped and they heard a
computer voice say, "Sea Deck. Thank you for riding Maglev."

As they came into the large room, Cordelia noticed something. "How
come the people here are wearing blue jumpsuits, and not black like
yours?" she asked Xander.

"Well, this is the science section," he told her, as an older
woman in a white lab coat came up to them. "And this is Doctor
Kristin Westphalen. Our head scientist and chief physician."

"Welcome to SeaQuest, everyone," the woman said as she shook
Cordelia's hand, who she guessed was the leader of the group.

"Thanks for having us," Cordy told her simply.

Lucas and Xander took Cassidy by the hand, and moved her to the edge
of the large moon pool. Cordelia and the other LA women watched, as he
pulled out a large yellow device off of the wall and turned it on.
"Darwin. Come to sea deck."

In under a minute, Cassidy yelled in joy as the bottlenose dolphin
swam in from a side tube. Lucas guided her hand, as she petted Darwin.

"I think you should say hi to him," he told the girl.
"Just say hi, and tell him your name."

She looked uncertain but said, "Hi, my name is Cassidy."

What happened next made the LA people jump in shock. A computerized
male voice came through the nearby speakers, "Cassidy
Darwin's friend?"

Cassidy looked at Cordelia, slightly panicked. So Cordy glared at
Xander.

"Show them, Lucas," the young man told the teenager.

"This..." he held up the device, "...is a Vocorder I. It
allows us to talk to Darwin." Lucas moved the device near
Cassidy, "I think he asked you something."

The girl leaned in to it and said, "Can I be your friend?"

The speakers spoke, "Yes! Darwin like more friends."

Xander leaned down next to her. "Say, Cassidy, are you a good
swimmer?"

The girl nodded quickly.

"Well, I'm betting we have a wet suit in your size around
here. Maybe you should ask Darwin if he'd like to go swimming
with you?"

The girl grinned widely, but as Xander stood up he saw Cordelia's
questioning glance. `It's okay,' he mouthed to her.

Dr. Westphalen came up, and took Cassidy's hand. "Let's
go see if we have a suit in your size, alright? I'm betting we
do."

***

Quarters of Lt. Xander Harris
24:15 hours ship time

Xander lay down on his bunk, after sending the message to Angel about
the girls' spending the trip on the SeaQuest.

Actually, he was still surprised that Bridger had allowed it. But
after he'd heard what Cassidy had been through – including the
vampires – he had gotten a few words from Noyce, and allowed the
visit.

Cassidy had spent the day swimming, with Darwin and Lucas. Then
Bridger had let her sit in the captain's chair, when she'd
tried to sneak onto the bridge during Xander's shift. But now his
C.O. had ordered him to take time off to be with his friends, for the rest
of their short stay, in order to get the vessel running smoothly
again.

The former Zeppo was about to get changed for bed, when he heard a
pounding at his hatchway. He knew it had to be one of his friends from
LA, since the SeaQuest people knew how to knock on the metal hatch
without pounding.

So, he got up and moved over and opened the hatch.

Cordelia was standing there, with a bottle of something and two
glasses.

"I hope they won't mind that I raided the galley," she
told him with a smirk, as the brunette woman came in and he closed the
hatch after her.

"Oh, I think they'll get over it," Xander said, then
looked at the bottle. "Ah, Cor? We don't have any alcohol in
the ship's stores," he told her suspiciously.

"Fine, you got me," the young woman said, as she turned the
label to show him. Grape juice. "I was going to send it to you
after we got back to LA, since you don't drink. But now, I'm
thinking we can drink it together."

He held the glasses as she removed the cap, and then poured the juice.
"Anything in particular we're drinking to?" he asked.

"Well, first I wanna say that I'm glad you and Cassidy are
getting along so well," Cordelia told him, as she sat on the bunk.

He looked at her, surprised. "You were worried that we
wouldn't?"

She frowned. "She's very picky about people. She's still
just warming up to Angel. But of course, you being on a super-cool
submarine didn't hurt," Cordy laughed.

Then a smirk showed up on her face, as he sat on the bunk next to her.
"What?" Xander asked.

"Well, I've thought about something for a while now. And
something happened today, that kinda clinched it for me."

"Oh? And what was that?" Xander asked as he took a sip of his
drink.

Cordelia took his glass from him, and set both glasses down on the
nearby nightstand. Then she looked him right in the eyes, as she took
his hands in hers. "Xander, the truth is – after I saw the
way Molly was still drooling over you today, I've decided to stake my claim
already."

Slightly surprised, Xander looked at her. "Huh? Your claim?"

"Hell, yes!" Cordelia said, as she reached up and caressed
his face. "I let my claim on you slip ever since we graduated high
school, but what the hell – I'm ready to try again." She
looked a little nervous. "That is, if you are?"

"Oh, for crying out loud! You knew what I was going to say before
you even came in here, Cor!" Xander said, as he lightly grabbed
her chin and pulled her lips to his.

As they parted the kiss, he laughed, "I guess this means I'll
have to get re-used to being hit over the back of the head a lot,
doesn't it?"

Cordelia pushed him down on the bed. "Oh, shut up! You know you
liked it."

He looked up at her, with a fake scared look. "So I guess
you're not exactly going to be gentle with me, huh?"

"Not in this lifetime, pal!" Cordy told Xander sternly, as she
straddled him and began to pull down the zipper on his jumpsuit.

TBC...