Part Two
FLASHBACK
April 18th, 1997
Alexander Harris's bedroom
Cordelia peeked into the room nervously, "Alex, are you in here?"
The young man in question was in fact leaning back in his chair, reading a book with his feet up on the desk. And when he saw her, the football player was so surprised that he jerked up in his seat, and instantly lost his balance.
Cordelia winced, as she watched the guy fall backwards out of his chair and hit the floor.
"Alex!" the girl called to him, as she ran over. "Are you okay?!" Cordelia helped him up, to sit on the bed.
But Alex Harris just looked at her. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question, Cordelia?" He then got a look of mild fear on his face, "You're, uh, not here to try and claim me as your, um, mate again, are you? Because that's, that's just sorta…"
"No, I'm not," the brunette told him quickly. "I-I-I wanted to explain. About that. Ah, you see…a college guy – one who you definitely don't know – he, um, slipped something into my drink at the Bronze yesterday, and I…"
"Cor, knock it off. This is me here!" Alex said, interrupting the spiel. "Look, is everything okay – really? Are you in some sort of trouble now, or what?"
She just stared at him, with an odd look. "Cor," the teenage girl repeated almost to herself. "You haven't called me that in years. Last time had to be...back when we were little kids. Second grade..."
The man laughed at the memories. "Yeah, well, guess I'm a little out of practice talking to you, huh? Okay, I'll try saying Cordelia from now on, if you want."
"No!" Cordy insisted. "You can call me Cor. I, ah...I've kind of missed it."
Alex turned to face Cordelia, and she could see the seriousness in his eyes. "Okay. But Cor, did some guy really give you drugs? Because if said asshole did give you Rohypnol or whatever to try and date-rape you, so help me God I'll get the team together and we'll tear off his…"
"NO!" Cordy stopped him. "Alex, please, let me handle it. In fact, it's been taken care of already. I just wanted to stop by, and…well, your mom let me in, but I just wanted to show you I'm okay now. Buffy said she had to knock you out…"
"Yeah, about that – what the hell is up with that crazy chick?" her first crush asked the woman. "She actually thought I would take advantage of you like that?" Alex asked in disbelief, shaking his head.
Cordelia shook her head. "Buffy is...well, just way overprotective of her friends. She doesn't know you as well as I do..." The girl then blushed as she said, "And you have to admit, I was doing a great impression of 'Cordelia Does Sunnydale' when she came in..."
Cordy then put on a false worried face, just for his benefit. "Oh, by the way, did I really have my top off? 'Cause I don't think I was wearing a bra..."
Alex suddenly decided to look very intently at the wallpaper pattern on the farthest corner of the room, as he tried not to think about whatever feelings that particular remark stirred up. But he was quickly brought back to the conversation with Cordelia's shout, "Hey! Cut the perfect gentleman crap, pal! I had my top off, didn't I?"
He looked at her and nodded. "Still, not that I would have tried anything Cor..." Alex reassured her quickly.
Cordelia waved that off, "I know you wouldn't have."
She then gazed at him with a pseudo-hopeful look. "Oh, and since you're the first guy I've ever flashed, and one of the few people whose opinions actually matter to me…I'd like to know. Did I at least look hot?" the teenager asked, as she struck a pose and waved her hand up and down her body like a fashion model. "'Cause hey, cheerleader here!"
Alex laughed. "Yeah, Cor, I'd say the term smoking hot would definitely apply."
Cordelia blushed shyly, as she looked down for a moment. "Was I better-looking than Harmony?" And at his funny look, she added, "Well, I figure you must have gotten a good look at her…by now...and I'm shutting up already."
Alex groaned, "Yeesh, you women! Look – I have to say, no matter what I really think, that my girlfriend is definitely a ten here, Cor. If I don't, then you know it'll get back to her..." His guest watched as he rolled his eyes and then spoke in a low voice, "Everything I say eventually gets back to her..."
"Something you want to talk about, Alex?" Cordelia asked him.
He sighed, "No. Hell, if she even knew you stopped by…"
"What?"
A shrug. "Well, I already had a two-hour phone conversation with her last night – about how you attacked her yesterday."
"I so did not attack her!" Cordelia said hotly. "She got in my face first, and called me a 'ho!" Then she looked at him, "And did you just agree with everything she said?"
Alex shrugged again. "Uh, I'm not sure exactly what she said, really. It got to the point where I decided to put the phone up to my computer speakers, and start up this little repeating MP3 of my voice going 'of course', and 'the nerve of some people'..."
Cordy giggled at the image. "Who are you trying to kid? That can't really work."
"Cor, I've been doing it for a month now, and she hasn't said a thing to me about it," the quarterback told her in annoyance.
"Alexander LaVelle Harris," Cordy said sternly. "You don't do that sort of thing to your girlfriend! That's totally wrong – even if it is Harmony we're talking about. I know how I'd feel!" She sighed, "Alex, why the hell don't you simply break up with her? From everything you've just said, it's obvious you now feel that you two are all wrong for each other!"
"Oh, I tried that once Cordelia. Didn't last long. She's a pro, and I'm the dating amateur." He shrugged his shoulders and told her, "But there are some perks, I guess. She's not bad looking, and a pretty good kisser. Besides, it's not like I have any other girls lining up to be with me anyway..."
"Oh no you don't, mister!" Cordelia told him angrily. "No self-pity! You big jerk, I know of at least nine girls who would instantly make a play for you, if you and the she-bitch ever broke up! Harmony even has her bimbo squad keeping tabs on them, if they try..."
But even as she said it, Cordelia could tell that he didn't believe her. Oh my God, she has got him so whipped it's disgusting! This is Alex. He doesn't deserve to be treated like that! Okay, that's it. This calls for drastic action!
She sat back on the bed next to him. "Alex, I have to get going to a meeting, but I want you to know something. There are girls out there besides Harmony, who would kill to be with you."
"If you say so," Alex said, with yet another shrug.
His mellow response made her make up her mind; Cordelia grabbed his face with her hands, and pulled him to her. And before he could do anything about it, she was giving him a huge kiss. Not an aggressive, lust-filled kiss like the day before, no – this one was long, wet, and as tender as Cordelia could possibly make it.
About 30 seconds later, she got up and walked to the door as the guy sat there, completely stunned. "Yeah, I do say so," the cheerleader said, as she walked out of his bedroom with her face beet-red but with a huge smile on it.
END FLASHBACK
***
"So, did he ask you out after that?" Fred eagerly wanted to know.
"No," Cordelia said sadly. "For the next few weeks, Harmony started watching him like a hawk. One of the Harmonettes must have seen me leave his mansion, or something..."
She shook her head, annoyed. "We did start sharing all these little looks from across the classroom, but any class we were in that Harmony wasn't, she had one of her groupies stalking us. But finally, it all came to a head on Prom night."
"What happened then?" Gunn asked.
The brunette woman sighed, "We were all busy with some big Hellmouth thing. The Master was going to get free from his prison, and it was kinda foretold that he would kill Buffy. But on the day of the Prom Alex had to go back out to the football field behind the school, because he'd forgotten his helmet after practice. And that's when…"
"When what?"
Cordelia grew angry, and for a moment Fred wondered if she'd pushed when she shouldn't have. "He found that little bitch, Harmony!" the former Sunnydale resident growled.
"It seems she was underneath the bleachers, making out with some guy from the college just outside of town. And if that wasn't bad enough, the horse's ass told the frat boy that she was only dating Alex because he was a popular jock, and that he was a really bad kisser!"
Cordy looked at her friends, "Which is so not true! He was a great kisser!"
Fred and Gunn shared a quick glance, wondering just how big Harmony's hospital bill had been after Cordy had gotten done with her.
"He came to the library, where all of us were, to see me after he overheard Harmony," Cordelia continued. "But like I said, we were trying to deal with that end-of-the-world type thing. Buffy was totally out of it, knowing she was destined to die; and the others wanted me to just get rid of him. But how the hell was I supposed to tell the guy, to simply get lost?"
***
FLASHBACK
Prom Night, May 31st, 1997
Sunnydale High School Library
Cordelia absently held Alex's hand as the rest, minus Buffy and Angel who were elsewhere, looked at them. Giles tried to usher the new arrival out, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Harris, I can see you have something on your mind – but, ah, we need Ms. Chase here for the moment. We have something that is rather time-sensitive going on, so…"
Jesse interrupted, "What he means is we need to be alone right now, so can you please take a hike already?"
"Jesse!" Willow scolded her friend.
"What?" the boy shrugged, ignoring the frosty looks from the two girls present. "We're on the clock here, and definitely don't have time to play three rounds of 'let's cheer up the quarterback'!"
"Yes, well, I am sorry Mr. Har-" Giles started again. But Alex surprised them all.
He looked at Cordelia and asked, "Is this something to do with the vampires?"
A pin drop could have been heard in the library. Giles looked sternly at Cordelia as the cheerleader shook her head, letting go of Alex's hand. "Hey, don't look at me! I didn't say anything..."
Willow looked at the brunette boy who'd
once been her friend. "Vampires? Uh, Alex, there's no such thing. You're…"
"Oh come on, do you think I'm totally stupid?!" the football player asked the group, with a pointed look towards Giles. "Vampires are real, and maybe some other kinds of demon-y type things are too, and you people are the superhero-wannabes who fight them. Am I right?"
Jesse was stunned. "What…? No…uh, dude, how'd you…"
Alex rolled his eyes. "You guys honestly think I haven't noticed stuff? Please! Your friend Buffy can beat the crap out of my boys on the team, who are like twice as big as she is. So, something's up with her! It's kinda hard not to guess, what with all the weird crap that started after she just happened to move here..."
Cordelia tried to hold Giles back, since he now thought this young man could pose a danger to his Slayer. The Watcher then grew more concerned as Alex continued, "Let's see, just how much crap has happened over the last six months? First off, this so-called gang on PCP attacks the Bronze, and a few people end up dead. Then a cheerleader nearly gets deep-fried by, well…nothing. Dr. Gregory is found by you, Cordy, with his head missing in a freezer. Principal Flutie is eaten by…"
Alex held up his hands and made quotation marks with his fingers, "…a wild dog, which somehow no one sees or hears? A boy and girl have their brain and heart cut out, during the time of the school play? I somehow ended up a nerd, who almost joined the chess club? Cordelia and Buffy get kidnapped and attacked by some chick that the Men in Black take away, before the cops ever show up? And wild guess here...the vamps are the guys with the fangs, and yellow eyes, that are super-strong and go 'poof' into dust with you stick a piece of wood through the heart. Did I miss anything?"
Cordelia just started at him in shock. "You know all that? Have you been watching us?"
He shook his head. "Cor, you really think your little group here are the only ones that the bloodsuckers attack?" Alex asked her. "Two weeks ago, some of 'em attacked me and Harmony when we walked home from the Bronze..."
Cordelia looked at him, very concerned. "You guys walked home after dark?!"
The guy returned her look, full-on. "Well, how was I supposed to know this town suddenly had its own Evil Dead convention going on?"
Alex sighed, as he looked around at the group. "I was getting my ass kicked, while Harmony was yelling at me to stop messing around and protect her, when your little blond friend showed up. Then some guy with way too much gel in his hair yanked Harmony and me out of the area, while Summers fought the undead. I turned around in time to see the dust start flying..."
Alex then groaned at all the shocked looks he was getting. Jesse, on the other hand, was looking at his former friend with mostly just contempt.
"Well, that's just great for you," the boy told Alex, as he got up from his chair. "It's like, a big gold star for the imagination of the football jock!" He then grabbed the guy's arm, and began to drag him out the double doors. "But like I said, we have way too much work to do right now. So, goodbye!"
Cordelia moved to stop Jesse, when Giles put a hand on her shoulder. The look on his face reinforced what she already knew.
That there was no time to bring Alex up to speed. Because the Master was going to rise soon, and bring about Armageddon.
The brunette girl called to young Mr. Harris as he was nearing the doors, "I promise I'll come over first thing in the morning, Alex!"
"Yeah, sure you will..." Harris said, as he angrily shoved off Jesse's hands and walked out the door, shaking his head.
The cheerleader watched the doors swing closed, before she turned towards Jesse – who had a smug look on his face, that she instantly detested. "Was that, like, really necessary? We coulda used the help!"
Jesse looked at her, slightly surprised. "We don't have time to break in the newbie, Cordy. Buffy is supposed to die tonight, for God's sake. I think that matters more than whatever that idiot had on his mind!"
"He's not an idiot! He gets better grades than you do!" Cordelia shot back at him.
Jesse was ready to fire back, guns a-blazing when Giles stepped between them. "Children, please! You can settle this later, because right now we have more pressing matters to attend to!"
END FLASH BACK
***
"Geez," Gunn snorted. "Did any of your friends like this Alex guy?"
Cordelia shrugged. "Willow did, but then she kinda had a little crush on him. Of course, I think she had one on Jesse, too."
Fred looked at her friend. "I guess you guys stopped that Master guy from rising, since Buffy didn't die until she fought that hellgod? And you're not dead…"
"Well, actually, he did rise," the brunette woman told them. "Thing is, Giles wasn't going to send Buffy off into a battle that she was prophesised to die in. But Buffy thought that if she'd cheated death a few times already, that somehow it might happen again..."
A sigh. "So she knocked good old Giles out, and took off for the fight. The bad part is that we didn't have the full translation, on that whole 'the Slayer will die' thing. The Master was freed from his prison by grabbing her, and then drinking some of her blood. If she hadn't ever gone down there, then the Master would still be stuck in that stupid cave of his."
"How could she have died twice?" Gunn asked, puzzled.
"Jesse went and got Angel, after he found out that Buffy had gone to fight the Master," Cordelia continued the tale. "There was a pool of water in his lair or something, because they found Buffy floating in it. Jesse tried CPR, and it worked. She did die, but he brought her back, and then they went to fight the Master on the roof of the school..."
***
FLASHBACK
Prom Night, May 31st, 1997
Willow turned back to Ms. Calendar in the library. "Well, the last time the Master's vampires attacked, they tried to get some fresh blood for the Harvest."
Jenny Calendar nodded. "Okay, then where was that?"
Willow's head shot up. "The Bronze!"
Cordelia was equally alarmed. "The Prom! We have to warn them!"
Ms. Calendar grabbed her keys off the table, turning to Giles as she and the two teenagers ran for the doors. "We'll go. You keep trying to find out what's…"
She didn't get to finish, because at that moment a bruised and bloodied Alexander Harris ran in through the double doors.
"Alex!" Cordelia yelled at his injured appearance.
But the boy paid her no attention, as he quickly grabbed the coat rack and slid it through the door handles. He then frantically moved the Xerox machine against the doors, before turning to the four surprised people. "Ah, by any chance is there another way out of this place?"
"Why do you…" Giles asked, as he ran over to the doors.
At that moment, a large fist with inhuman strength smashed through one of the round windows in the library doors, causing shards of glass to fly towards the group.
"Oh, hey, no reason..." Alex said sarcastically, as he put all his weight against the doors to help keep them closed.
Giles looked through the windows, to see over a dozen vampires trying to break in past the doors. "We've got to secure the stacks!" the British man called out, as he raced towards the back with Willow.
Ms. Calendar looked in fear through the windows, as the vampires tried to get in. "Why are they coming here?!" she yelled at Alex.
The football player gave his computer class teacher a stupefied look, as he tried to shake off a vampire's arm that had grabbed his hair. "Why the hell are you asking me!?"
As Cordelia finished helping him get his head free, they heard Willow scream. They all looked back in time to see a huge neck with three snake-like heads erupt out of the floor; its vine-like tentacles wrapping themselves around anything it could find. Giles was brandishing an axe as he attacked one of its heads, that was going after Willow...
Ms Calendar ran to help, as Alex turned to the shocked Cordelia next to him. "So…is this normal for a Friday night nowadays, for you?"
Cordy didn't respond, as she stared on in shock as the two teachers pulled Willow free.
The cheerleader then saw a blur, as Alex ran past her. She saw him jump up onto a table and grab a tentacle, one that was going for Giles' head.
Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way the football player thought it would, as the tentacle was much stronger than it looked; it wrapped itself around the boy, and lifted him high towards the ceiling. Then he was dimly aware of Cordy yelling his name, as the jock saw some weird-looking guy in leather laughing at him through the skylight.
As Alex hung there in midair, he did the only thing he could think of. He just flipped the leather guy his middle finger. Then moments later, the boy was whipped back down towards the floor.
The wind was knocked out of him, as the tentacle smashed him through a wooden table. The teen was released a second later, as the tentacle retracted; Alex would later suspect the impact had hurt it, as much as it had him.
Cordelia and Giles ran up, and pulled him clear of the ruined table. The Watcher then left her to attend to Alex, as he ran back to help the others get clear. The cheerleader checked him quickly for injuries, "Please be okay, you big doofus..."
END FLASHBACK
***
"And then after Buffy had fought the Master on the roof, she was finally able to throw him down through the skylight – and he got impaled on a piece of the table that Alex had busted up. It was all just way too insane," Cordelia told them.
Gunn and Fred just exchanged shocked looks between themselves.
***
FLASHBACK
Prom Night, May 31st, 1997
Willow moved the obstacles from the doors, to let in Buffy, Angel and Jesse. "The vampires?" the redhead asked Jesse.
"Gone," he said simply.
"The Master?" Angel asked nervously.
Giles stepped aside, to let the souled vampire see the skeleton remains. "He's…a…quite dead."
Willow looked at the bones, and then at Buffy – who was also staring at them. "Quite a night, huh?"
Jesse looked towards her. "Yeah, Buffy died and everything."
"Wow, harsh."
Giles looked to his Slayer. "I should have known that wouldn't stop you."
Buffy returned the warm smile he gave her. Then, she finally noticed Alex being held up by Cordelia. "What are you doing here?" the blonde asked him.
"Well, uh, nothing much," Alex said, between the shots of stabbing pain. "See, there was nothing on cable tonight except 'Saved by the Bell' reruns, so I thought I'd drop by and see what you guys do for fun."
"Oh," Buffy said distantly, as she looked back to the bones.
"This may sound stupid, but what do we do now?" Ms. Calendar asked.
"I don't know about any of you," Giles began. "But I'd like to get out of here. I don't rather like the library right now."
Nods went around the room, before Jesse spoke up. "Hey, I hear there's a dance tonight. Could be fun?"
"Yeah," Willow agreed. "Buffy?"
"Sure," the Chosen One said. "We saved the world, I say we party. I mean, I did get all pretty."
"What about him?" Ms. Calendar asked, as she pointed to the Master's remains.
"He's not going anywhere," Buffy said, looking at the bones with distaste. "Loser."
With that, they seemed to turn as one towards the door. "I'm not dancing though," Giles told Ms. Calendar.
Jesse grabbed Willow's hand. "Come on Wills, let's go show them how to really dance the night away!"
"Yeah, come on hero boy," Cordelia told Alex, as she helped him to the doors. "I better take you to the hospital..."
Alex flashed her a grin, before he turned to Buffy as they left the library. "By the way, I like your dress!"
Buffy laughed, "Yeah, yeah. It's a big hit with everybody."
END FLASHBACK
***
TBC…