I'm back with Chapter 3. I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it. Now on with the show! Oh, and for all those interested, WB is premiering a new vampire show called Dark Shadows in place of Angel next season. So we aren't going to be left completely in the lurch. Let's just hope it's comparable.

Angel and Buffy outshone everyone else at fighting by far. Gunn and his gang were amazing at hand to hand, but were easily over powered by the amazingly strong demons they were fighting. The Scourge was ruthless and vicious, trying hard to kill everyone in the building. Buffy was especially good at fighting the demons, kicking and slicing her way through several before many of the others managed to kill even one.

The good news was, they seemed to be winning. The Scourge was there in multitudes, but both the people from Sunnydale and LA were too accustomed to fighting what seemed to be losing battles to care much about how many demons there were. Giles had been right. The only advantage the Scourge had over them was that they were innately evil. They had had millennia to get being evil right, and they had done an amazing job.

Every demon oozed evilness. Fighting them was more than just being leery of the ick factor, as Cordelia had put it. It was avoiding pure evil. The kind of darkness that seeped into your skin, and polluted who you were. The kind that made you want to scrub your skin off simply by touching one. That was a definite advantage, and they played it well.

But they were winning the battle. That was the important thing. The demos were falling, they were not. Angel knew that had something to do with their determination and emotion. They were all fighting for more than their own lives, more than the world. They were fighting for a man they could all call a friend.

The battle was going much better than it had in her vision, Cordelia knew. But something was still nagging at her. A sense of something going wrong. Something happening that wasn't supposed to happen. She looked around anxiously, searching for Doyle. She found him fighting two demons at the same time. It was like the entire scene was in slow motion. She rushed towards him, the sword she had been given in one hand. Just before one demon was about to stab Doyle in the stomach, she, using all the strength she possessed, drove her sword up underneath the demon's ribcage and completely impaled him.

Doyle whirled around and saw only Cordelia, standing there soaked in demon blood. The others were finishing off the last few demons. The Scourge had been defeated. They hadn't had the surprise they'd counted on and it had cost them the battle, if it could be called that. The only thing left to do was destroy the Beacon.

But Cordelia had done what she had come to do. She had saved Doyle's life. Given him the future that he deserved. Given herself, or her past self at least, a chance for a future with him. And then, because she had done what she had come to do, and there was nothing left for her to do that the rest could not handle, it was time for her to go.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked, seeing Cordelia simply standing, her face pale and drawn with terror. "Are you hurt?"

"No." Cordelia said shakily. "I just – I have to go now."

"Go where?" Buffy questioned, "We still have work to do."

"I don't. I did what I needed to do." She said, turning to Doyle. He took her hands in his. "I'm scared I'll get there and you won't be there." She whispered.

"I will be. You just have to believe that. It's gonna be harder for me, Princess. You've got a lot of growing to do to get to where you are now."

"Just remember, she's me. I am what she will become, and maybe she'll be better. I haven't had the best life, Doyle. I'm bitter and depressed most of the time. Give her, me, a chance. You fell in love with her. Remember that. You didn't fall in love with me. You love me because you love her. And I'll see you in five years."

Cordelia leaned forward slightly and kissed him. And a blue light engulfed her. Changes started to happen. Her hair darkened, grew. Her body became slightly slimmer, less curvaceous as the Cordelia that belonged in 1999 returned and the Cordelia of 2004 faded into the future. Everyone watched in awe as the light faded, leaving Doyle kissing the Cordelia that he had fallen in love with. The wonderfully shallow, big- hearted girl who had stormed into his and Angel's life.

"What just happened?" Buffy asked in a near whisper.

"Long story." Angel said, almost smiling. "I just dread to see what Cordelia does when she realizes that she's kissing Doyle."

"But she kissed him."

"No," Angel said gently, "Her future self did."

Doyle considered himself lucky that Cordelia hadn't killed him when she had finally realized that she was, indeed, kissing him and that it wasn't a dream. She'd been confused, disoriented, at first. It seemed that the Powers That Be had replaced her memories and she never realized that she'd been gone.

"What does she remember?" Angel asked Doyle late that night, after the Beacon had been destroyed and the Listers set off for their destination. The Scooby Gang were all sleeping upstairs before leaving the next morning. Cordelia had gone home for the night to think by herself.

"She remembers me getting the vision. Remembers you thinking of seeing the captain of the Quintessa and him agreeing to take the Listers. She remembers coming up with the plan to call Buffy and hearing about Gunn on the street and thinking that he could help. She remembers the second vision and the fight and then nothing. The next thing she knew, she was kissing me."

"Are you going to tell her?"

"I don't think we have a choice. If I don't someone else will. Especially now that Buffy's and Gunn's crews know about her time traveling."

"Look, I know that you and Cordelia were on the verge of something. Don't knock it just because you got a glimpse of what an amazing woman the future turns her into. I have a feeling it'll be even better if you're there to do it with her. Tell her you're in love with her. You heard the future Cordelia. She loves you too."

Doyle stood up and donned his coat and hat. "Do you think she's still awake?"

Angel nodded. "It's been a terribly long day for her. She's probably very confused, and has a lot to think about. I'd be surprised if she were asleep. And if she is, Dennis'll tell ya."

Doyle stopped and looked back at Angel. "It's weird, knowing I was supposed to die today. Even weirder is knowing that the only reason I didn't is because a future Cordelia loved me enough to travel back in time to stop it."

"That's where you're wrong." Angel said. "The future Cordelia is feeling feelings that our Cordelia has right now. She didn't fall in love with you. Our Cordelia did. You've got to remember that."

"It'll be hard, I think."

"Make it easy, Doyle. That Cordelia, she doesn't even exist right now. And she's not going to exist, because things are going to be different. Things are going to be better, and because things are going to be better, her life is going to be better, and she's not going to be in a position where the only thing left to do is make a wish born out of grief and sorrow. She's not going to be bitter, and depressed, and not know where to turn."

Cordelia was curled up on the couch when someone knocked on the door. She got up slowly, walked to the door, and opened it only when she saw Doyle standing on the other side. She stood there for a minute, looking at him, before stepping back to allow him entrance. He walked in wordlessly, and removed his coat and hat. She took them, and hung them up in the closet.

"What's up?" she asked, walking back into the living room, where she sat down on the couch. He took the chair.

"I think we need to talk, Princess."

"Yeah. Something happened these past couple of days I don't know about, didn't it?"

Doyle nodded. And then he spent two hours explaining everything that had happened, without leaving out anything. Even the things he felt had the greatest chance of damaging their chances together, he told her. And when he finished, she sat there and started at him for a long time.

"I must have really loved you." She said in a oft voice. "I really grew up well." She commented, more to herself than to him. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For only realizing I loved you after you died. But that really changes things, Doyle. Can you, I mean, do you think, that you could still love me? The me that's here, sitting in front of you, after meeting her? After knowing that she loves you?"

Doyle looked pained. "I thought about that for a long time, 'Delia. At first, I didn't know. You're so different in the future, so much more grown up. But then she changed my mind. She said, remember, you didn't fall in love with me. You fell in love with her, and you love me because you love her."

"So, where exactly does that leave us? Because I know I can't play second string to a girl that may not ever exist."

Doyle looked at her. "She was right. You are the girl I fell in love with, Princess. But having her here, it gave me a glimpse of a you that I could have just as easily fallen in love with. And logically, I know that you're her, and she's you, just in different times, but I don't know if I can promise you that I won't compare the two of you."

Cordelia looked near tears. "Then it doesn't matter does it? What the future me did? Because she still isn't going to get her wish. Because she came back to stop your death, and you lived, but gave up on me." She said, standing up. "I think that maybe you should go."

Doyle stood and walked toward the door. "For what it's worth," he said as he got his coat and hat, "I'm sorry. I wish that things would have worked out differently."

"And for what it's worth, I could learn to love you, Doyle. The demon doesn't matter to me. I just wish that you'd give me a chance to make you realize that. But you're giving up on me before I've even had a chance to prove that I can be just as good as the girl that was here. She was here two days, Doyle! How can knowing someone two days make you want her more than me?"

"I don't know, 'Delia. And I don't think that it's that I want her more than you. I think it's that I'm afraid she might die."

In her own way, Cordelia understood. She was heartbroken by that, too. "So I don't even get a chance. You've decided that I'll never be as good as her, and there's nothing that I can do to change that. Everything she did was for nothing then. She's going to wake up in five years and we still won't be together because you're too bull headed to think that maybe I can be good enough."

Doyle left then, and Cordelia slumped against the door, sobbing. It seemed that no matter what happened, whether he lived or died, she realized that she loved him moments too late to make it matter. First he had died, and now, he may as well have died, because he wanted a Cordelia that might not ever exist.

But Cordelia Chase was not one to give up easily. She yanked on flip flops and a jacket and flew from her apartment, foregoing the elevator for the stairs. She ran out of the building and saw Doyle at the end of the block, about to get in a cab. She ran as fast as she could, yelling his name once as she approached. He turned just in time to catch her as she launched herself into his arms.

Cordelia pressed her mouth to his in a passionate kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, returning the embrace. They kissed for a long time, until they ran out of breath, and only then did he set her back onto her feet. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and brought his forehead to hers.

"You fell in love with me, mister." She said, "And don't you ever forget it. And she's not here anymore. I am. And if you want her, you're going to have to settle for me."

Doyle grinned and swung her in a circle. "Somehow, Princess," he said, knowing for the first time that he would be happy with her. That he truly loved her. "I don't think it's gonna be settling at all."