Leaning onto the chair, her grip firm and enduring, Cordelia let her head fall in defeat as she let out a long, deep breath. Knuckles white, arms sore and her cheeks slightly dingy from staking Jesse, she looked the part of a daughter who'd been wrestling in the mud past her curfew and got caught by her overbearing father.

Giles, hands on his hips and an eerily impassive expression on his aged yet still handsome features, looked at Cordelia for a few moments before finally speaking, his voice even more chillingly even then his stare. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah...I'm sure," Cordelia looked up, not even bothering to feign a look that would receive sympathy. Deep down she knew what happened and knew that there was no escaping whatever Giles had planned to do or say to her, whether it was to remain spookily quiet or loudly reprimand her for her foolishness. "Xander, Willow and Buffy saw it happen."

What she got in response was her Watcher shaking his head, apparently trying to organize his thoughts, opinions on the matter, to get an even footing before he jumped in to berate her.

"They pretty much found out about vampires and that I can kill them," Cordelia explicated in an even voice, trying not to put any more pressure on what was already known.

The library, lit only by a few lamps placed around the room, was quiescent except for the words spoken by Cordelia and Giles nearly echoing off the walls. It was nearly midnight and no one had the strength to muster the courage to ask when he or she was going home, not yet anyways.

"How could you allow this to happen?" Giles asked, removing his glasses and rubbing his temples, a headache coming on. "Part of being a Slayer is to dispense of vampires with secrecy and stealth, not announce to the world of your actions."

Angel cleared his throat; pushing himself away from the corner he'd placed himself in when they first entered the library, and into the light where his attentive features became visible. "Listen, it's not her-"

"Not a word from you!" Giles pointed at Angel, stopping the vampire from speaking any further. "It's exactly your kind that are the problem."

Having enough, Cordelia pushed herself away from the chair, slamming it violently into the hardwood table. Her hands clenched into fists and her chest heaving as frustration took control, she looked at Giles with a firm stare, not once wavering in her confidence to defend herself.

"I had no choice," she said, and even though her position and the way she stood showed she was frustrated, her voice was no louder than a whisper, soft and soothing. "If I had one then I would've forced Xander and Willow inside. But Jesse had Buffy by the neck and I wasn't going to risk a life by keeping a stupid secret."

Turning her head slowly, her visage softened a bit when her eyes came in contact with Willow and Xander, sitting quietly in their seats, expressionless and still quite dazed.

"He's...a vampire," Xander muttered, nearly breathless when he spoke the 'v' word.

Willow shook her head, "He's dead."

Buffy took a step forward, stopping her bad habit of chewing on the ends of her hair when she was nervous by using her mouth for her prized talent: talking. "What the hell did you do to Jesse?"

Jumping only a little bit, Cordelia held back the urge to hold her heart and show any more signs of shock when she looked at Buffy, surprised beyond anything that the blonde was in the library with them and she had yet to notice. "What the hell are you doing there and how long have you been here?"

"Giles is always in here because he has no life and I heard you talking to him when I was getting in my car," Buffy explained, her fingers twitching, her nails waiting to be bitten. "So I followed you. Not too close that you'd see me but not too far so that I wouldn't have a good getaway if this place was taken over by more of those bumpy-faced freaks."

Obviously, she would have gone on but when she caught sight of Angel, standing quietly and obediently, a smile tugged at her lips and her head cocked to the side. The moment passed and she snapped herself out of it long enough to ask her question again. "Seriously, what did you do to Jesse?"

"He's a vampire," Cordelia sighed, not even bothering to try and add some seriousness to the revelation. Buffy Summers was far from the kind of person who'd take anything seriously. Unless she was scared shitless.

An odd look crossed Buffy's face, "You mean, like, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt-like vampires?"

Cordelia groaned, throwing her hands up in the air.

Angel took the opportunity to step forward, not wanting any more stress to be put on Cordelia, or even Willow and Xander. The situation was one that needed consideration to be put into it and he had the strong feeling that Buffy was not one to do so. "I'll take her home."

"Just to make sure she's safe," Angel explained when Xander threw him a curious look.

Nodding, Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest. "Call me if you find anything useful, alright?"

Though pleased by the choice of escort, Buffy held onto her willpower long enough to remain steadfast in her desire to get answers. "I'll go as long as someone answers my questions."

"I will, we just...need to go," Angel said to her quietly in a slightly condescending tone, but Buffy didn't catch on as she hooked her arm in his reluctant one, and left the library with him.

Finally, Cordelia thought to herself, sighing as she walked over to Willow and Xander. "You guys okay? I'll walk you home if you like, when you decide to go of course."

Shaking himself out of it, Xander stumbled on his words for a few moments before finally managing to speak. "Wow, I just—So are you some sort of superhero?"

Cordelia couldn't help but let a little grin appear at his stupid, yet totally cute and innocent, question. "Anyone can kill a vampire, I just have reflexes and strength at my advantage."

"I figured weird stuff was going on in Sunnydale," Willow scratched her head, still trying to swallow the entire thing. "Maybe not 'demons and vampires' weird, but weird nonetheless."

"If you guys are weirded out by this...well, you can ignore it all and when tomorrow comes, you can ignore me too," Cordelia suggested, not too pleased by the suggestion, but giving it a shot anyways.

Xander nodded in agreement. "We do have a magic shop, I mean. They sell Holy Water and stuff like that."

After hearing that revelation, Cordelia turned to Giles. "Go there. Get all you can. If you're right about this whole town being a hotspot for vampire and demonic activities, we might want to have a few supplies. Just in case."

Giles blushed slightly, opening and closing his mouth quite a few times before he finally spoke. "Actually, there was something that I managed to forget. The hotspot of the hotspot...the opening of the hellmouth is coincidentally located under the library."

"Thanks for driving me," Buffy said to Angel, checking her nails to see if her constant biting had done any noticeable damage. For a moment, she glanced over at Angel and when she noticed that he too was furtively looking at her, she couldn't help but grin, allowing a little blush to flood her cheeks.

Angel returned his attention to the road ahead, adjusting his grip on the steering wheel. "Sorry for my driving skills. I'm a little rusty."

"No biggie, I'm not that good of a driver anyways."

"Then why do you have a car?" Angel asked, his curiosity getting the better of him once again. "I mean, if you aren't good at driving, why bother? Sunnydale's not that big of a town."

Buffy scrunched her nose in thought for a moment, "My parents bought me this car, so I guess that's why I use it."

"For your birthday? They got you a car for your birthday?"

"No, just a Thursday afternoon," Buffy nonchalantly explained. A moment passed before she finally let out a small huff and turned to Angel. "What was with Jesse's face? It was all bumpy."

Shifting in his seat and licking his lips, Angel tried to figure the best way to word his explanation. Finally, he just went for it. "When a vampire gets angry, or they prepare to bite or kill someone, they get what a lot of people call a 'game face'."

Though Buffy got her answer, something still seemed to bother her. "I just...I can't believe Jesse's dead. You think that maybe we can get a vacuum and get all the dust and just, like, glue him together?

"Did he mean something to you?" Angel asked quietly, managing to get his voice as gentle as it had ever been.

Letting her eyes fall to her lap, Buffy pursed her lips, trying to find the best way to explain it all. "He did. Still kind of does. Back in elementary school, him and me were like, brother and sister. We lived next to each other."

"Really?"

"Until my dad got a promotion and we moved into a bigger home, farther away," Buffy explained, her voice distant as the memories flooded back for a moment. "Before I knew it we stopped spending summers together, climbing up trees and seeing who'd do the most damage to their bones by jumping off the high branches...Then middle school and hormones hit. He groped me in the lunch line."

For what seemed like hours, Angel, his head tilted slightly to the side, just looked at Buffy, seeing an innocent side to her that he hadn't noticed earlier, an emotion that Cordelia clearly hadn't been aware of in the time the two of them spent with each other. It was a refreshing thing to see.

But the moment passed and Buffy, obviously not that clueless, took notice to her admittance of deep feelings and cleared her throat, putting on a smile. "It might have been him, I don't know. Every guy at Sunnydale High is obsessed with me. I've lost track."

Cordelia closed the door behind her as quietly as possible, slipping out of her boots and trying not to let them make the annoying, and loud, clunk sound every time they came in contact with the hard floor.

Even being as stealthy as she was being, Cordelia still couldn't get away with getting up to her room before her father realized she had been out late again. He sat at the top of the stairs, staring aimlessly off into space. Surprisingly, he didn't have a drink in his hand. But it was discovered by Cordelia when she saw the glass shards on the stairs that he probably dropped the glass he had in his hands.

"Your mother called..." he said weakly, finally locking stares with his daughter. "She...sends her love, of course."

Cordelia cleared her throat to hide the thickness in her voice at seeing her dad so helpless. "You guys talked...?"

"Yep."

"To each other?"

Will actually let out a small chuckle at that as he ran a hand through his hair. "It's getting late, Cordelia."

He stood up slowly, holding onto the railing for support. Before he could go to his room though, Cordelia took a few steps forward and spoke up, causing him to stop in his path, his back still facing her. "I still love you, dad."

Cordelia's father's head fell in response. "Why wouldn't you?"

It was obvious in the way he asked it that he was just waiting for her to say something about his drinking problem. There was no anger in Will Chase's voice at all, only pathetic anticipation for the painful truth.

"I just wanted you to know that..." Cordelia stopped when her voice caught in her throat, but managed to clear it and continue speaking. "You're not alone. Mom may be gone, but I'm still here."

Again, her father allowed a chuckle to escape his lips. But this time it seemed deeper, more of a rumble. His emotions were slipping from his control and Cordelia swore to herself that she could see his eyes sparkling with tears.

But he didn't say anything to her, he didn't turn around and smile or cry, he didn't say goodnight or 'I love you'. All Will Chase did was continue walking to his room. The soft thud of his door closing seemed so entirely loud to Cordelia as she stood helplessly at the bottom of the stairs; wondering what it would take to get her father back.

Closing her door softly so that she didn't disturb her father, Cordelia entered her room with a blank expression on her face. Her room was as quiet as the rest of the house, which didn't help the sickening feeling in her stomach.

A few feet into her room she finally took notice to Angel, looking in through the window while kneeling on the roof.

The best part about his presence was that the priceless expression on his face made her grin like a fool as he held out her bag of supplies. "Can I come in?"

Wiping the smile from her face immediately, trying to keep up some type of professionalism between the two, Cordelia nodded. "Yeah. Come on in."

Taking off her jacket, Cordelia's tongue poked out of the corner of her lips in a way that made the small, sweet smile on Angel's face widen, if only for a moment. Cordelia didn't take big notice to it though, folding her jacket twice before placing it on the chair beside her desk.

"You all right?" Angel asked, taking a look at her room, quite impressed by her tasteful decorations. The dark blue comforters on her bed matching the lighter, yet still elegant blue of her throw pillows were the first thing he noticed and not the last. "I couldn't help but overhear your..."

"Father," Cordelia finished for him in a grim voice, one that caught Angel's attention. But she didn't dwell on the situation for long as she proceeded to move over to her dresser and pick out a tank top to wear to bed.

"Sorry."

"It's all right," Cordelia dismissed his apology easily as she pulled out a pair of sweat pants and a tank top. For a moment, she forgot about any sense of modesty and started to remove her shirt, but then her senses came to her and she turned to Angel and asked, "Could you turn around?"

Angel laughed his nervousness off when he didn't listen to her at first and just stood there, waiting for her to continue getting undressed. He finally turned around, immediately apologizing. "Shit, sorry. Forgot about manners."

"Well, it's not necessarily manners, it's just self-control you have to work on."

Angel's brow furrowed "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you were staring."

"I...I just. I wasn't staring."

"Yes, you were!"

"No, I wasn't. I swear."

"Just admit it," Cordelia said in a half-teasing manner.

"I'm serious, there's a scratch on your shoulder," Angel pointed out, trying not to show his incredible relief at the coincidence of her having an injury on her back. It was a small scratch, but deep enough to show some concern.

Angel showed more than enough when he turned around and stepped closer to her, Cordelia turning so that her back was to him and he could get a better look at it.

Running his hand along it gently Angel held back a grin when he noticed a slight shiver coming from Cordelia. His voice as quiet as his touch, he spoke to her after a fleeting moment. "One good thing about being a vampire. Your wounds heal faster than you can imagine."

"What're the other good things?" Cordelia asked. "You said 'one of the good things'...what're the others?"

Angel didn't have time to answer when the door opened, Cordelia's father entering. Though Cordelia's light was on his face remained incredibly shadowed.

"I wanted to apologi-" he started to say, but his eyes narrowed when something caught his attention. "What's that?"

Cordelia's heart skipped a beat and she turned around, expecting to see Angel, but she actually discovered he wasn't there.

"The scratch, where'd you get the scratch?" her father asked.

Cordelia shrugged, "It's nothing."

At the sight of his daughter having any kind of injury, Will Chase finally looked half-alive when his eyes looked back up at hers with the utmost concern. "Are you alright?"

"Must've scratched it earlier without knowing."

"As long as you're alright. Need a band aid?"

Cordelia shook her head, "I already have one. But thanks, dad."

She assumed, though, that after the mess of her scratch got cleared up that her father would return to what he came into her room for. But he didn't, and Cordelia sighed in disappointment as she always did when her conversations with her father would always get cut off.

When he left the room without another word, Cordelia decided to just sleep before she thought too much about all that was happening in her life.

Buffy leaned forward to see inside her locker clearly enough so that she could get the makeup she was searching for. When she lifted her hand to reach inside, she immediately took notice to the extremity at which her hands were trembling.

Fisting them tightly enough that they turned starch white, she returned her attention to grabbing her mascara. Twisting the cap off she lifted the tip of it to her eyelashes and gently moved it up and down, accentuating them as she normally did every day between second and third period.

Cordelia appeared, out of the blue, startling Buffy, which caused her to slip, allowing a long, dark line of mascara to smear across her cheek.

"You doing ok?" Cordelia asked quietly as Buffy frantically tried to wipe away the mascara before anyone noticed.

"I'm doing fine!" Buffy lied in a snappy tone. "I managed to forget what happened last night, too. One of my many talents."

Rolling her eyes, Cordelia leaned in so that she only had to whisper for Buffy to hear her. "You don't have to hide it. You can talk to me if you like."

Buffy turned to face Cordelia, on the verge of rolling her own eyes as she scoffed. "I'd rather eat cow crap than have Oprah sessions with the freaky new girl."

"Whatever," Cordelia shook her head, walking away.

Buffy watched her go, waiting till the brunette turned the corner before returning her attention to her hands, fisting them once again to prevent them from trembling uncontrollably.

Arms indolently hung over the arms of his leather chair, Angel sat quietly, his dark eyes reflecting the dancing flames of his fireplace as he contemplated the situation.

Though he had been sitting there for hours, the vampire was far from giving up, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, to figure out what the endgame was for whomever they were going to face, for whomever was responsible for turning Jesse.

Darla came to mind immediately. Knowing she was in town was a big enough distraction but when a new friend of Cordelia, the Slayer, was turned into a vampire...it was a sign that Angel just couldn't ignore.

She's involved somehow...

An instant passed and then it hit him. The Master.

Not wasting a minute, Angel pushed himself from his chair and moved to grab his jacket. In less than three strides he was at his door, opening it and moving outside. Only the sunlight that caused his hand, the first thing out the door, to catch fire, stopped him from going more than about three inches outside.

Jumping back inside, falling to the ground just outside the sun's long rays of light, Angel clutches his burnt hand, grimacing slightly.

Great, he thought to himself, knowing that not only was it daylight and he had to wait, but he now had to take care of his hand.

Opening the door, Cordelia stepped inside her third period class as quietly as possible, hoping that the teacher wouldn't notice her lateness.

She was relieved to discover that Mr. Roberts had fallen asleep and the class was just chatting away, whether to each other or on their cell phones. But a moment passed and her eyes locked on Xander and Willow who, previously speaking to one another, had paused at her entrance.

A minute or two passed, Cordelia standing with her book in hand, biting her bottom lip, waiting for something to happen or something to be said and Xander and Willow just looking at her with unreadable expressions.

Finally, Cordelia just let it go and moved to sit down in the nearest desk she found, far away from Xander and Willow.

"We saved a seat for you!" Willow exclaimed just as Cordelia started to sit down.

Cordelia, allowing a small smile to appear on her face, nodded and walked over to them. "Thanks."

Her forehead was red from being pressed against her palms, her elbows aching from supporting the weight of her head on the table, Cordelia let out a long breath, blowing the stray piece of hair out of her eyes.

Violently and suddenly, she slammed the book closed, ignoring the annoying amount of dust coming from the pages. "Reading dusty books is boring!"

Giles walked out of the office, his eyes glued to the book in his hands as he took a sip from his cup, obviously containing tea. "It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to hear the future generation so adamantly interested and intrigued by the endless information held in literature."

Taking note of the sarcasm in his tone, Cordelia shrugged. "I...have a lot on my mind, alright?"

"Really, what is exactly on your mind?" Giles asked and regretted doing so when he rightly assumed it was some 'friends' drama.

"I feel so guilty about killing Jesse in front of Willow and Xander. I guess it's just that I made friends and somehow I've already managed to run them out of my lives."

Giles closed his book softly, pursing his lips as he tried to make the Slayer feel better. "Are you so sure that they don't want to be friends with you?"

"Not really," Cordelia seemed undecided and it became evident in her unconvincing tone. "They offered me a seat by them in third, but we hardly talked and when the talking happened, I had no idea what they were even discussing."

"Welcome to my world."

Cordelia simply groaned, giving up and burying her face on top of the closed tome in front of her. "I'm starting to get tired of being a teenager."

When the doors leading into the library opened, Cordelia lifted her just slightly to discover Xander and Willow casually entering the library, removing their bags.

Sitting down in front of Cordelia, they both looked around casually.

Xander was the first to speak, "How can we help?"

Cordelia looked to Giles, purposely pouting to get his approval. "Can they help?"

"Fine," the Watcher relented. "No fooling around. This is research time."

"I know," Cordelia assured him, opening the book in front of her. When she saw out of the corner of her eyes that Giles had left to go into his office, she grinned at Xander and Willow. "So, did you guys hear about that girl who got paid to ask out one of the teachers?"

"Didn't he say yes or something?"

Giles, inside his office, couldn't help but roll his eyes as he heard the three teenagers continue to chat about meaningless things.

The sound of the vampire's cheekbone smashing against the hard, brick wall in the dark, empty alleyway assured Angel his strength wasn't wavering, even after about two hours of trying to 'persuade' the little weasel to spill information about his employer.

"What's he up to?" Angel demanded, his voice threatening enough. But his grip on the back of the vampire's neck was also a reason for the vampire to spill, the bones in his neck near snapping.

"Why are you, a vampire, so damn interested in bringing down the vampire when all you have to do is join and get as much power as you desire?"

Angel responded by pulling the vampire back and slamming him once again into the wall, this time breaking his nose. "I'm not into those kind of things anymore."

"So, you're the vigilante vamp, huh?" the vampire asked through a laugh. "Angelus, right?"

"I don't go by Angelus anymore," Angel informed him. "It's Angel."

At the sound of his former name, Angel lost his patience and grabbed the vampire's wrist, twisting it roughly so that a small whimper escaped the suspect's mouth.

"Tell me what you know."

"Fine," the vampire gave up; his face scrunched up in pain as the bones in his wrist could be heard snapping every second. "You ever heard of a certain prophecy?"

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Cordelia bit the end of her pencil as she looked at the equation before her. Damn math homework.

Her attention however, was easily distracted when her eyes drifted along the cabinets in the kitchen and noticed one full of bottles of alcohol, all sorts of them. When she thought of alcohol or even saw it nothing came to mind but her father and his depression. Even at work, where he was most distracted, he seemed distant to his customers and so...lackadaisical.

Before she knew it, Cordelia was opening the cabinet. Running her hands along all the bottles, Cordelia made her first choice and pulled the bottle out. A second passed and the cap on it was removed with a loud snap, which allowed all the liquid to spill out of it when Cordelia tipped it over and poured every last drop into the sink.

Not even bothering to read the labels to determine how strong the liquor inside was so that she could poor the stronger ones first, Cordelia continued for another minute to poor three more bottles into the sink until they were all empty.

"What're you doing?" came a deep, familiar voice behind Cordelia, causing her to jump and drop one of the empty bottles, which crashed onto the floor into a million shards of glass. It was her father, she discovered as she spun around to face him.

He didn't look happy. As usual. But this time it was different because his dark eyes were fuming at the discovery of his daughter messing with his collection of liquor yet also tearful that she had to resort to pouring them down the sink to stop him from drinking.

"Dad! What're you doing home? I thought you were working extra hours at the Gallery?"

"Decided to work normal hours today, come home and relax..." he lied. He had a bad headache from the previous night when he didn't even get an hour of sleep and had almost snapped at work when a customer was pissing him off. Taking the rest of the day off was something he had to do to prevent himself from hurting anyone.

His voice was deep as usual, and not at all edged with anger. Will Chase's hands were fisted and the veins weren't bulging in his temple as they usually did when he was pissed off. Seeing his daughter like she was...it was as if he was betrayed. Not by her but by himself. How far had he gone for his daughter to result in destroying every last drop of his liquor to protect him, and herself?

"I just..." she gesticulated with her hands profoundly as helplessness flooded her. It was like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, only ten times worse. "I hated seeing you so miserable."

"So you decided to pour down over three hundred dollars worth of liquor?" he asked, almost growled. It wasn't about what was inside of it anyone, or at least, he didn't think it was that that mattered. The money he spent on those drinks, some were given to him by friends, was now becoming painfully evident as he heard the last of the liquids go into the drain. "What the hell's wrong with you?"

When he stepped forward, Cordelia took five steps away from him, actually afraid that he might do something to her. "You can't do this. You can't get mad at me for wasting liquor. I poured those down because I hate the way you're acting. You're drinking so much."

"Well, just be thankful that I don't drink and drive. I risk no one's safety," he growled, leaning against the sink for support as his mind reeled. "Fuck, Cordelia. What you just did was stupid and irresponsible!"

"Irresponsible?" Cordelia spat, her confidence the only thing she had to hold onto to keep her speaking. Her tone was far from controlled and respectful and she'd never ever spoken to her father the way she was now. It was a refreshing experience yet at the same time one that she wished she would never have to experience again. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Eventually it'll catch up to you."

"In what way? My liver getting fucked up?" her dad asked, not taking what she was throwing at him seriously. He turned to her with a hardened face.

Cordelia tried to keep her emotions in control, but involuntarily, her bottom lip trembled as she saw her father, so different from the man she'd grown up to love and respect. "You might...you might get violent. When someone drinks, dad, they get out of control and they get...abusive."

"I would never hurt you," he immediately assured her, his voice softening as his face melted slowly. The mere suggestion that he would ever hurt his daughter was enough to push the cost of the drinks out of his mind. And with that thought out of his mind all he had left was the naked truth.

His daughter was starting to get frightened for not only his safety but for her own.

"That's the point. What's to stop you from drinking even more than you are now? Nothing, if you don't listen to me. And if you keep drinking like this, dad, eventually you'll do something you'll regret."

Will Chase took a step back, slowly turning around and leaning against the counter as it sunk in. But denial, always his strongest enemy, kicked in before he could admit to himself that he had a problem. "No...that's not going to happen."

He pushed away from the counter and moved to leave through the front door. Cordelia followed until her dad turned around and pointed at her almost threateningly. "Don't you touch any of those drinks, alright? You've already wasted enough of my money."

Cordelia could barely find the strength to nod as he turned and left, slamming the door so hard the doorknob almost fell off. A small tear escaped her eyes and streaked down her cheek as she stood still, so helpless and numb after what just happened. She'd finally said something to her father, finally stood up for herself and tried to convince him to stop his problem before it went too far. But it didn't work. It blew up in her face and her father was now pissed off at her.

And fuck, I just wasted 300 hundred dollars!

TBC...