Part 12 – Normal Routine
Cordelia pulled out of the school parking lot and let the top down on her convertible. The rain from yesterday was forgotten, as the sun had burned away the clouds over the course of the morning and the afternoon was warm and bright. A tape of Dingoes ate my baby was in the car's stereo and Cordy turned up the music. She loved the feel of the wind in her hair, the speed the little sports car produced and the sound of music. Dingoes were not the best of bands, but she preferred the newer, less pop, music and this suited her mood. They could be a little edgy and dark and well that was her mood.
Hmmm was a certain vampire rubbing off on her.
Cordy drove the quickest route to the mansion it was almost 4 pm and she had been gone quite a while. She did not want a repeat of last night. She sped the car a bit faster. She loved driving fast.
She pulled up the driveway and stopped in front of the door. She'd love to figure out a way to get the old Crawford Street Mansion restored. It was a classic southern Californian Spanish influenced architecture and loved the thought of bringing the house back to its former glory. She was thinking of the place more and more like home. She thought about her parent's house in the Hills section of Sunnydale. It was all new houses, very modern, very expensive, without a whole lot of character. Sure she loved what she had done with her room there and it was a nice house, but it more and more felt like just a place her parents stopped by in between trips around the globe. Oh well, she would be done with High School soon and had plans on getting out of Sunnyhell, so her parents house didn't really matter. ...then why did she still want to restore the Mansion?
She walked into the foyer and put her book bag down on the floor by the coat rack, and put the box of chocolate bars on the side table. She casually looked in the dusty mirror at her reflection, and was happy with her appearance. This place really needs a good cleaning from top to bottom...how to manage that one....she would need to make a phone call and then figure out how to get Angel out of the house for a bit.
"Welcome home Cordelia." Angel said from behind her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"EEEEKKKK!!!!" Cordelia shouted and turned to Angel, moving very close to his body, "Angel you scared the life out of me! Remind me to get you a bell or something." She absently rested her hand on his chest. It hit her that he sounded very sane, almost normal.
"Sorry, I thought you had heard me, but then I guess you couldn't see me." Angel said, nodding toward the mirror.
"No, I could barely see myself with all that dust." Cordelia said and then turned and looked at the mirror. Her hand looked like it was resting against the air, as there was no sight of Angel's reflection in the mirror.
"Yes, this place sure has its share of dust. How was your day?" Angel turned and guided her towards the living room
"Good, you know classes, learning, ogling football players." Cordy said casually taking a seat on the couch. "You didn't page me when you woke up."
Ogling football players, well as long as none of the looked at her, he was fine. "You'd be proud of me, I just got up about a hour ago, I heated a bag of blood, took a shower and got dressed. All done in a calm, rational matter, no insanity." Angel said proudly, and he didn't want to admit he had no clue how to make the cell phone work, and didn't want to tell her that he had almost thrown it out the window. He sat down on the couch next to her, and put his arm across the back of the couch behind her head.
"You couldn't figure out how to use my cell phone could you?" Cordy said, she had the vampire figured out.
"No." Angel said quietly.
"That's okay, you're what two-hundred eight, ninety years old, it is understandable an old man like you would have a hard time." Cordy joked. It was fun talking with a completely sane Angel, even more fun than Saturday night was.
"I am not that old Cordelia." Angel said defending himself. I am not old, just extremely well preserved.
"Well Big Guy, how old are you anyway?" Cordy asked, one of the many items on her list of things to find out about the Vampire.
"Well I was 25 when I was turned, so that would make me 241, as a vampire." Angel said, how slowly time went by when on brooded 100 of those years.
"So that means you are really 276 then." Cordelia said, not asked but said.
"No, I am 241." Angel said back, he could sense a serious discussion starting with the girl. He was not adding another 25 years to his age.
"Actually, it is probably closer to 376, given that we should add the 100 years you just spent in hell." Cordelia was enjoying irking him. It was so obvious that he was a little vain about his age.
"No you can't count that time, it was in an alternate dimension. Plus Vampires start counting how old they are based on when they were turned." Angel said. He was right. She was not going to add 125 years to his age, no way.
"Now that I will give you as, who knows how long it really was, maybe it just felt like 100 years. But seriously Angel, you really need to add the time you were human to your age count. All those experiences helped to shape you too." Cordelia was going to win this argument. She might not have been on the school's debate team but she certaininly could argue with the best of them.
"No Cordelia, it is just not how it is counted." I am right damn it.
"Angel what is your birthday?" Cordelia asked innocently.
"May 16th, I was born in Galway, Ireland." He said proudly, with a little hint of an Irish accent as he said his home country.
"Was that the day you were turned into a vampire Angel?"
"No, that was sometime in the fall, in September, I think, I don't really remember." Lots of questions, I like the fact she is so interested in me.
"See, you just admitted it, you are 276." Cordelia said triumphantly.
"Huh? What kind of bizarre Cordelia logic is that?"
"Well, you did just tell me that your birth date was May 16th and you can't even tell me what day you were turned, so you do the math. You add the number of years you have been a vampire, 241, plus the age when you were turned, 25 and you get 276 whopping years old." Winner and new champion ladies and gentleman.
"But that is not how it is done." Angel said, a lame retort to her logic. Was she right?
"I can't wait till May 16th gets here Angel, we are going to need a cake that is the size of your dinning room table in order for me to fit all 277 candles on top!" Cordelia leaned forward and took her cell phone off of the coffee table.
"Pfft" was all Angel could say. But he was extremely glad that she planned on being around come the spring.
"Aww don't go all broody on me. Hey what are your thoughts about getting out of here tonight?" Cordelia asked as a plan formed in her mind.
"You don't need to stay here if you don't want to Cordelia, I can feed myself now." Angel said. Don't leave me, please don't leave me.
"What, no way, you fixed what one packet of blood on your own today. I can't be sure you are completely back to normal until I see you cook your meals for yourself for at least a week. No, I just had a thought about getting this place cleaned up."
He was never going to heat up a packet of blood again if it meant that she would stay by his side.
"Yah, I figured I would call the Daddy's real estate company and have one of their quick clean crews come over and do a once over of the place. He uses them whenever he wants to get a property sold quickly. They come in with about 40 people and clean the place from top to bottom. Takes about 6 hours." She turned on her phone and started dialing numbers.
"Hi, yes this is Cordelia Chase....Yes they are good, in Europe....Daddy called me, he has a property on Crawford Street he is thinking about renovating for sale, but it needs to be cleaned. It has been abandoned for quite a while.....Yes, that is the property...Well tonight of course, Daddy wants to act quickly on this one...Good, the door will be open, and it will be done by morning...good...Yes charge it to Daddy's new project account...thank you, I'll let Daddy know you took care of this for him, Bye." Cordelia turned off the phone and looked at Angel.
"What just happened?" Angel was in shock at how she just took charge of everything, and didn't get his permission as to what was to be done to his house. I hate the grime and dirt everywhere, maybe he would let her have her way with this, plus he wanted her to like his house.
"Chases are very good at getting things done quickly. I just hate the grime and dirt everywhere." Cordy would have been surprised had she known she had said the exact words Angel was thinking.
"Cordelia, I can't let your father pay to clean my house." Angel said.
"Angel he would not want me staying anywhere that was this way, plus he has lots of money, won't even notice that it was spent." Cordelia said, knowing that her father never really paid any attention to what she did or how much she spent, as long as she didn't interrupt client meetings.
"I love the fact that it is Fall and the sun is just about to set. Come on, we will go over to my place and hang out there for the night and then head back here before sunrise to a new clean house." Cordelia stood up and looked at the shocked vampire.
"I am going to pack a cooler, and check to see if you really did eat a packet of blood, then we can go, why don't you go throw some clothes into a bag, and pack some swim trunks. I feel like doing laps in the pool and it is heated." Cordelia said as she walked to the kitchen.
Angel was dumbfounded. A 17 year old girl, human girl, had just ordered his house cleaned and then ordered him to pack a bag, and what to pack. Who the heck was she; He was a 241 year old vampire who was the Scourge of Europe. Wait a minute...Cordelia...a swim suit...warm water where is the bad in this? Angel took the stairs two at a time to pack a bag.
Cordelia put the cooler in the trunk of her car. She was happy that he had had fed before she got home. It certainly helped his sanity level. She would need to find out what a normal consumption level was for a vampire, she didn't want to see any extra pounds put on that yummy body. Three van's pulled up with the name 'Speedy Cleaning' on the side, and a man came out of the first van with a clipboard.
"Miss Chase?" He asked coming up to the teenager. He could tell she had money and Cordelia had an 'I am in charge' air about her.
"Yes, you are the contractors right?" She put on her best business face.
"Yes, so you want a full cleaning, as if it were to be sold tomorrow?" The man asked, he had done enough of these to know how fickle the Southern California real estate market was to know that this was important.
"Yes top to bottom, and on the third floor there are some creepy dolls, those can be thrown out, as well as the bedding in that room." Cordelia said, wanting to be rid of anything that had touched Spike or that creepy Drusilla.
"Any other instructions?" The man asked as Angel came outside to the car, tossing his bag into the backseat of the convertible.
"Yes, there are some very old books and such in the 2nd floor bedroom. Those aren't to be discarded, nor are any of the boxes on that floor. Just dust and get rid of the grime." Angel ordered, he too used to know how to order servants as he had done before he was turned.
"Not a problem Sir. Miss Chase, I just need you to sign here." Cordelia took the clip board and started signing her name, very big, yet strong script.
"I need it done before dawn, Jerry." Cordelia said, reading the name sewn into the man's shirt.
"Not a problem, should I call you when we are done?" Jerry asked, looking at the young wealthy couple. Maybe they planned on renovating and living here themselves. Nice to be able to afford to hire help to clean your house.
"No that won't be necessary, we will be back early, just before dawn. Angel are you ready?" She asked, dismissing the cleaning crew to get started.
"Sure." He said. Amazing, simply amazing for someone so young to be so mature.
"Well hop in, my pool is calling me!" Cordelia said, getting into her car in the driver's seat and starting the engine. Angel hopped in and looked forward to the evening.
"Seatbelt dorkus." Cordelia said...everyone wore a seatbelt in her car.
Angel simply followed instructions and pulled the belt over his shoulders. He new he had no hope of winning an argument with her, well at least not this particular argument. He was happy.
Cordy sped through town and worked her way toward her parents house. They stopped at a light and you could hear the music coming out of the car's stereo and Angel and Cordy talking and laughing. They looked like a very happy couple out on a warm fall night.
Neither of them noticed Xander on the other side of the interception, stopped at the light as well in his parents station wagon, which they had let him borrow, to go over to Buffy's house. Xander looked and saw the convertible on the in front of him, and then speed past as the light changed to green.
"Hey that looks like Cordelia" Xander thought..."Hey who is that guy in the car with her????" Wishing he had gotten a better look, other than to tell it was a dark haired man sitting next to her in the speeding convertible.
Cordelia pulled out of the school parking lot and let the top down on her convertible. The rain from yesterday was forgotten, as the sun had burned away the clouds over the course of the morning and the afternoon was warm and bright. A tape of Dingoes ate my baby was in the car's stereo and Cordy turned up the music. She loved the feel of the wind in her hair, the speed the little sports car produced and the sound of music. Dingoes were not the best of bands, but she preferred the newer, less pop, music and this suited her mood. They could be a little edgy and dark and well that was her mood.
Hmmm was a certain vampire rubbing off on her.
Cordy drove the quickest route to the mansion it was almost 4 pm and she had been gone quite a while. She did not want a repeat of last night. She sped the car a bit faster. She loved driving fast.
She pulled up the driveway and stopped in front of the door. She'd love to figure out a way to get the old Crawford Street Mansion restored. It was a classic southern Californian Spanish influenced architecture and loved the thought of bringing the house back to its former glory. She was thinking of the place more and more like home. She thought about her parent's house in the Hills section of Sunnydale. It was all new houses, very modern, very expensive, without a whole lot of character. Sure she loved what she had done with her room there and it was a nice house, but it more and more felt like just a place her parents stopped by in between trips around the globe. Oh well, she would be done with High School soon and had plans on getting out of Sunnyhell, so her parents house didn't really matter. ...then why did she still want to restore the Mansion?
She walked into the foyer and put her book bag down on the floor by the coat rack, and put the box of chocolate bars on the side table. She casually looked in the dusty mirror at her reflection, and was happy with her appearance. This place really needs a good cleaning from top to bottom...how to manage that one....she would need to make a phone call and then figure out how to get Angel out of the house for a bit.
"Welcome home Cordelia." Angel said from behind her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"EEEEKKKK!!!!" Cordelia shouted and turned to Angel, moving very close to his body, "Angel you scared the life out of me! Remind me to get you a bell or something." She absently rested her hand on his chest. It hit her that he sounded very sane, almost normal.
"Sorry, I thought you had heard me, but then I guess you couldn't see me." Angel said, nodding toward the mirror.
"No, I could barely see myself with all that dust." Cordelia said and then turned and looked at the mirror. Her hand looked like it was resting against the air, as there was no sight of Angel's reflection in the mirror.
"Yes, this place sure has its share of dust. How was your day?" Angel turned and guided her towards the living room
"Good, you know classes, learning, ogling football players." Cordy said casually taking a seat on the couch. "You didn't page me when you woke up."
Ogling football players, well as long as none of the looked at her, he was fine. "You'd be proud of me, I just got up about a hour ago, I heated a bag of blood, took a shower and got dressed. All done in a calm, rational matter, no insanity." Angel said proudly, and he didn't want to admit he had no clue how to make the cell phone work, and didn't want to tell her that he had almost thrown it out the window. He sat down on the couch next to her, and put his arm across the back of the couch behind her head.
"You couldn't figure out how to use my cell phone could you?" Cordy said, she had the vampire figured out.
"No." Angel said quietly.
"That's okay, you're what two-hundred eight, ninety years old, it is understandable an old man like you would have a hard time." Cordy joked. It was fun talking with a completely sane Angel, even more fun than Saturday night was.
"I am not that old Cordelia." Angel said defending himself. I am not old, just extremely well preserved.
"Well Big Guy, how old are you anyway?" Cordy asked, one of the many items on her list of things to find out about the Vampire.
"Well I was 25 when I was turned, so that would make me 241, as a vampire." Angel said, how slowly time went by when on brooded 100 of those years.
"So that means you are really 276 then." Cordelia said, not asked but said.
"No, I am 241." Angel said back, he could sense a serious discussion starting with the girl. He was not adding another 25 years to his age.
"Actually, it is probably closer to 376, given that we should add the 100 years you just spent in hell." Cordelia was enjoying irking him. It was so obvious that he was a little vain about his age.
"No you can't count that time, it was in an alternate dimension. Plus Vampires start counting how old they are based on when they were turned." Angel said. He was right. She was not going to add 125 years to his age, no way.
"Now that I will give you as, who knows how long it really was, maybe it just felt like 100 years. But seriously Angel, you really need to add the time you were human to your age count. All those experiences helped to shape you too." Cordelia was going to win this argument. She might not have been on the school's debate team but she certaininly could argue with the best of them.
"No Cordelia, it is just not how it is counted." I am right damn it.
"Angel what is your birthday?" Cordelia asked innocently.
"May 16th, I was born in Galway, Ireland." He said proudly, with a little hint of an Irish accent as he said his home country.
"Was that the day you were turned into a vampire Angel?"
"No, that was sometime in the fall, in September, I think, I don't really remember." Lots of questions, I like the fact she is so interested in me.
"See, you just admitted it, you are 276." Cordelia said triumphantly.
"Huh? What kind of bizarre Cordelia logic is that?"
"Well, you did just tell me that your birth date was May 16th and you can't even tell me what day you were turned, so you do the math. You add the number of years you have been a vampire, 241, plus the age when you were turned, 25 and you get 276 whopping years old." Winner and new champion ladies and gentleman.
"But that is not how it is done." Angel said, a lame retort to her logic. Was she right?
"I can't wait till May 16th gets here Angel, we are going to need a cake that is the size of your dinning room table in order for me to fit all 277 candles on top!" Cordelia leaned forward and took her cell phone off of the coffee table.
"Pfft" was all Angel could say. But he was extremely glad that she planned on being around come the spring.
"Aww don't go all broody on me. Hey what are your thoughts about getting out of here tonight?" Cordelia asked as a plan formed in her mind.
"You don't need to stay here if you don't want to Cordelia, I can feed myself now." Angel said. Don't leave me, please don't leave me.
"What, no way, you fixed what one packet of blood on your own today. I can't be sure you are completely back to normal until I see you cook your meals for yourself for at least a week. No, I just had a thought about getting this place cleaned up."
He was never going to heat up a packet of blood again if it meant that she would stay by his side.
"Yah, I figured I would call the Daddy's real estate company and have one of their quick clean crews come over and do a once over of the place. He uses them whenever he wants to get a property sold quickly. They come in with about 40 people and clean the place from top to bottom. Takes about 6 hours." She turned on her phone and started dialing numbers.
"Hi, yes this is Cordelia Chase....Yes they are good, in Europe....Daddy called me, he has a property on Crawford Street he is thinking about renovating for sale, but it needs to be cleaned. It has been abandoned for quite a while.....Yes, that is the property...Well tonight of course, Daddy wants to act quickly on this one...Good, the door will be open, and it will be done by morning...good...Yes charge it to Daddy's new project account...thank you, I'll let Daddy know you took care of this for him, Bye." Cordelia turned off the phone and looked at Angel.
"What just happened?" Angel was in shock at how she just took charge of everything, and didn't get his permission as to what was to be done to his house. I hate the grime and dirt everywhere, maybe he would let her have her way with this, plus he wanted her to like his house.
"Chases are very good at getting things done quickly. I just hate the grime and dirt everywhere." Cordy would have been surprised had she known she had said the exact words Angel was thinking.
"Cordelia, I can't let your father pay to clean my house." Angel said.
"Angel he would not want me staying anywhere that was this way, plus he has lots of money, won't even notice that it was spent." Cordelia said, knowing that her father never really paid any attention to what she did or how much she spent, as long as she didn't interrupt client meetings.
"I love the fact that it is Fall and the sun is just about to set. Come on, we will go over to my place and hang out there for the night and then head back here before sunrise to a new clean house." Cordelia stood up and looked at the shocked vampire.
"I am going to pack a cooler, and check to see if you really did eat a packet of blood, then we can go, why don't you go throw some clothes into a bag, and pack some swim trunks. I feel like doing laps in the pool and it is heated." Cordelia said as she walked to the kitchen.
Angel was dumbfounded. A 17 year old girl, human girl, had just ordered his house cleaned and then ordered him to pack a bag, and what to pack. Who the heck was she; He was a 241 year old vampire who was the Scourge of Europe. Wait a minute...Cordelia...a swim suit...warm water where is the bad in this? Angel took the stairs two at a time to pack a bag.
Cordelia put the cooler in the trunk of her car. She was happy that he had had fed before she got home. It certainly helped his sanity level. She would need to find out what a normal consumption level was for a vampire, she didn't want to see any extra pounds put on that yummy body. Three van's pulled up with the name 'Speedy Cleaning' on the side, and a man came out of the first van with a clipboard.
"Miss Chase?" He asked coming up to the teenager. He could tell she had money and Cordelia had an 'I am in charge' air about her.
"Yes, you are the contractors right?" She put on her best business face.
"Yes, so you want a full cleaning, as if it were to be sold tomorrow?" The man asked, he had done enough of these to know how fickle the Southern California real estate market was to know that this was important.
"Yes top to bottom, and on the third floor there are some creepy dolls, those can be thrown out, as well as the bedding in that room." Cordelia said, wanting to be rid of anything that had touched Spike or that creepy Drusilla.
"Any other instructions?" The man asked as Angel came outside to the car, tossing his bag into the backseat of the convertible.
"Yes, there are some very old books and such in the 2nd floor bedroom. Those aren't to be discarded, nor are any of the boxes on that floor. Just dust and get rid of the grime." Angel ordered, he too used to know how to order servants as he had done before he was turned.
"Not a problem Sir. Miss Chase, I just need you to sign here." Cordelia took the clip board and started signing her name, very big, yet strong script.
"I need it done before dawn, Jerry." Cordelia said, reading the name sewn into the man's shirt.
"Not a problem, should I call you when we are done?" Jerry asked, looking at the young wealthy couple. Maybe they planned on renovating and living here themselves. Nice to be able to afford to hire help to clean your house.
"No that won't be necessary, we will be back early, just before dawn. Angel are you ready?" She asked, dismissing the cleaning crew to get started.
"Sure." He said. Amazing, simply amazing for someone so young to be so mature.
"Well hop in, my pool is calling me!" Cordelia said, getting into her car in the driver's seat and starting the engine. Angel hopped in and looked forward to the evening.
"Seatbelt dorkus." Cordelia said...everyone wore a seatbelt in her car.
Angel simply followed instructions and pulled the belt over his shoulders. He new he had no hope of winning an argument with her, well at least not this particular argument. He was happy.
Cordy sped through town and worked her way toward her parents house. They stopped at a light and you could hear the music coming out of the car's stereo and Angel and Cordy talking and laughing. They looked like a very happy couple out on a warm fall night.
Neither of them noticed Xander on the other side of the interception, stopped at the light as well in his parents station wagon, which they had let him borrow, to go over to Buffy's house. Xander looked and saw the convertible on the in front of him, and then speed past as the light changed to green.
"Hey that looks like Cordelia" Xander thought..."Hey who is that guy in the car with her????" Wishing he had gotten a better look, other than to tell it was a dark haired man sitting next to her in the speeding convertible.