Cordelia woke up warmer than she'd been in a long time. It took a minute, but she soon remembered the source of that warmth. Doyle. After their drama the previous night, they'd gone back to her apartment to talk, and had fallen asleep. The presence of pyjamas told her that nothing had happened that she didn't remember, and for that she was thankful. It wasn't that she didn't want to be with him, it was that their relationship was too new for them to be jumping into bed together.

But, Cordelia admitted ruefully, they had practically jumped into bed together, just without the whole sex thing. That was allowed, she decided, because she liked having him close and being able to just reach out and touch him. Lying in bed with a man who was supposed to be dead, but was very much alive was a new experience.

Determined to stay still and quiet until he woke up on his own, Cordelia, burrowed back into his arms, and closed her eyes, not really wanting to go back to sleep, but not wanting to wake him up. But she didn't have to wait long, no more than five minutes passed before he stirred and opened his eyes.

"Mornin' beautiful." Doyle said, his voice gravely from sleep, leaning over to kiss her forehead. He couldn't be sure, but he had a pretty good feeling that she was a no kissing with morning breath kind of person.

"Morning." Cordelia told him, smiling one of her thousand watt smiles. "Did you sleep well?"

"Most definitely. I like holding you all night. How did you sleep?"

"Better than I ever have before." She admitted, scooting further into his arms. "Do we have to get up?"

"I'm afraid so, Princess. We've got jobs to do. And Buffy and her friends are leaving today. Don't you want to see them off?"

"It's hard for me to see them at all, but yeah, I suppose it's the least I can do since I was the one to bring them here. Sorta."

"I understand." Doyle assured her, getting out of bed. "I'm gonna run home and change. I'll see you at the office, okay?"

Cordelia reluctantly got out of bed and walked him to the door. "Normally I wouldn't do this," she pointed out, "But I don't want to share my toothbrush." She said, and then kissed him squarely on the mouth.

Doyle was the one who eventually broke the kiss. "You're progressing by leaps and bounds already, darlin'." He said, and then he was gone. Cordelia shut the door after he was out of sight, and ran to the bathroom to get ready. It was even more important than normal that she look good. For one, she had a boyfriend to impress, and for two, a whole group of classmates to impress.

Cordelia showered as quick as she could, and stood in front of the sink in a towel while she blow-dried her hair. One her hair was dry, she ran a straightening iron over it to assure there were no stray curls escaping anywhere, and did her make-up. She did that a little more carefully than usual, going lighter on the eye and lip make-up. After all, she didn't have to impress any new prospects by looking glamorous.

After doing all that, came the hard part. What to wear. That question alone took nearly an hour to answer, finally being answered with a short dark blue denim skirt, a white camisole and a sheer baby blue cotton sweater. Then, and only then, did she look acceptable enough to be seen by the Scoobies.

Buffy was the only one in the lobby when Cordelia got there. She could tell from the voices that everyone else was downstairs. Cordelia lifted her eyebrows at the blonde Slayer, and walked over to her desk to check the messages on the machine. Buffy followed her silently and sat down on the counter.

"Angel told me what happened. With the time traveling and all." She said hesitantly. "I wanted to tell you that, even though you aren't the mature, grown up woman who did those things, I was really amazed by you yesterday. You did a good job, and it probably saved a lot of lives."

Cordelia turned around to look at Buffy. "Thanks," she said, just as haltingly. Both women were treading unfamiliar ground, being nice to one another. "It's nice to know what I'm capable of. Imagine that, Cordelia Chase, Queen C and bitch of Sunnydale High changing the present by traveling back to change the past. All for a love she was never really sure she had."

"There's where we have one thing in common." Buffy admitted ruefully. "Doing anything for love. Take my advice, Cordelia. I know you never have before, but I know a little more on the subject. Don't push him away. Tell him you love him and often. You never know when it's going to be the last time. I know I never dreamed that Angel was going to leave me when he did. Hell, I never thought he was actually going to go."

"Doyle would never leave me willingly."

"I know. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at you. And I can see it in yours when you look at him. I never imagined you'd fall in love with anyone. Let alone a half- demon who isn't famous or disgustingly rich."

Cordelia shrugged. "I never dreamed it either, but look at me. I do love him. I'm just thankful that, this time at least, I get to have a chance to tell him that."

Before Buffy could say anything else, the door opened and Doyle strode in, donut box in hand. "Mornin'," he said brightly, "I'm back with breakfast."

Buffy hopped off the counter and took the box. "Tell me you got jelly."

"I got jelly." Doyle parroted obediently.

"Now tell me the truth."

"I got jelly." He assured her, kissing Cordelia quickly when Buffy turned away. She linked her arm through his and they followed Buffy downstairs. Cordelia leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Any regrets?" she asked in a whisper.

Doyle kissed the side of her head. "Not one. Don't worry, Princess, I'm not gonna change my mind on you. You're right. It is you that I fell in love with. And now, that woman might not ever exist." He looked at her tenderly, "She'll probably be better."

Cordelia smiled and let him lead her to the empty couch. They sat and listened to everyone talk before Xander turned to Cordelia. "So, Cordy, how's life?" he asked, eyes showing some level of both animosity and affection for his old girlfriend.

"Pretty good. It sucked royally for a while, but now I'm good."

Anya grinned. "Can't be that good. I've got Xander and you've just got him."

"Just him? Anya, sweetie, let me enlighten you. Doyle is ten times the man Xander is. He won't cheat on me, or lie to me, or hide things from me, or make me impale myself for him. I don't have to jump through hoops to be good enough, I just have to be me."

"Yeah, but does he have muscles?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes and humored the ex-demon. She wasn't really angry, or even annoyed, Doyle noticed. She was actually quite complacent for Cordelia. "Yes, Anya, he has muscles. So Giles, are you going to be a librarian at the new high school when they get it built?"

Giles lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "As of right this moment, there aren't even any plans to begin construction of a new school. And I don't think I would like being a librarian again. Principles like Snyder are all too common in Sunnydale."

Angel walked into the room then, and almost everyone noticed that he chose a seat as far away from Buffy as possible. Cordelia, who knew him better than most anyone else, noticed a deep pain in his eyes when he looked at the Slayer that still held his heart. She felt a strange sensation, like she knew something, but couldn't remember what. She imagined that the other Cordelia knew something and she was just trying to access a memory that didn't exist.

"Any calls this morning?" Cordelia asked; but no one answered because just then, a strange demon ran into the office.

"I need help, there's someone after me! And just to be honest, I'm gonna tell you up front, I'm a demon. But not one of those bad demon types. I'm an empath demon." He looked at Angel. "Wow, you have some serious angst goin' on." He commented, then turned to the two couples, Doyle and Cordelia and Xander and Anya. "And you four, there is enough sickeningly sweet puppy love in this room to make a guy throw up."

Angel looked at the demon. "Who are you? And what do you need help doing?"

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention that, didn't I? Name's Barney. There're two guys after me. One's a human; one's a demon. The human was after the demon, but then decided he'd be better off with me, seeing as I don't have any special powers. The demon is one who sucks the powers from other demons. I'd make a nice trophy, I'd wager. Demons would love being able to sense how everyone feels. Easy prey and all."

Buffy stood up. "Well, it would seem like you have work to do." She said, "And that means we'd better head back to Sunnydale. Call if you need any help. We're only a couple hours away."

Cordelia looked at Buffy and nodded. There was an understanding between the two women. They were going to try. The past day had taught them a lot about the other, and they knew that they would be seeing more of one another in the future. Past conflicts were on their way to being forgotten.

"Will do." Cordelia said softly, and watched the Sunnydale crew leave with mixed feelings of sadness and relief. Then she turned to Barney. "Okay, so what do you want us to do? We aren't in the business of killing humans who kill demons."

Barney shrugged. "Talk him outta killing me? Just do something! I'm desperate."

Doyle exchanged a look with Angel. "Okay." He said in resignment. "We'll help."

Cordelia walked into Doyle's office later that afternoon and sat down in front of the desk. "He is driving me insane." She said, rubbing her temples.

"Really?" Doyle asked in amusement; making sure Barney wasn't within hearing distance. "What is he doing?"

"Purposely annoying me. He follows me everywhere, Doyle. I haven't been able to get any work done at all. And do you know how hard it is to keep an empath demon from finding out that I'm beginning to hate him?"

Doyle laughed. "That would be pretty difficult. But with any luck, darlin', Angel will find something soon and we'll have him out of our hair."

"I hope so. And soon. The sooner he's out of here, the longer I keep my mind. But does he seem off to you? Like he isn't telling us something?"

"Yeah. I got that feeling too. We'll just have to keep an eye on him."

Cordelia never got a chance to answer. She opened her mouth to, the blacked out as Barney slammed a vase into the side of her head. She wasn't aware of the fight that erupted. She fell out of the chair, hit her face on the side of the desk, and finally came to rest on the floor.

Doyle was out of his chair and around the desk in seconds. He and Barney wrestled for a long while, but he was finally knocked unconscious as well. His last thought was that he was going to enjoy killing the annoying, back-stabbing demon.

Sorry it's taken me so long to update. Life has been really hectic. The next chapter will be up as soon as I can write it. So, with any luck, within a day or two.