i Spain, 2 weeks earlier /i

"Dru, I'm begging you, let's not do this." Spike pleaded carefully with her.

"No!" She shouted, throwing a vase at Spike's head.

He ducked, but shards of the pottery cut the back of his head and neck when it shattered into the wall behind him.

"We have things to do." She said calmly, as if nothing had happened.

"Ok, luv, but do they really require us going to bleeding Sunnydale?"

"Yes. That's where the toy box is." Spike didn't even question that. Whatever she said, it wouldn't make much sense.

"But you love Spain. We've been here for years, and you've never been bored." He said, hoping to convince her to stay in the country, or at least somewhere on this side of the Atlantic.

"You don't want to see the Slayer's kin. You betrayed them, and they're going to kill you." She sing-songed.

"Precisely why I don't fancy California." He said, making the distinction…Spike didn't want to travel to Los Angeles either.

She shook her head, as if he was the crazy one. "You're afraid. Of them. And of daddy." She read his mind.

"It's creepy when you do that, you know. Fine. We'll go back to sunny California-" There was an air of disgust in his voice as he said the last few words. "But let's get this over with." /i

Los Angeles

Lorne walked down the steps into the lobby. He spotted Fred sitting on top on the counter, reading a magazine.

"Hey, cutie pie. Where's the rest of Angel, Inc?"

"Angel, Wesley, Cordelia, and Faith were out doing the whole 'Yay, you're out of jail' dinner thing."

"Why aren't you there with them? I've never seen you turn down food, Fredikins."

"They asked all of us to come, but we didn't know Faith that well, or, at all, and we didn't want to intrude."

"Ok, that works. But where's everyone else?"

"A little help, here!" Angel called, as Faith opened the front doors for him.

Cordelia was leaning heavily on him, holding her head in her hands. Wesley burst through the doors after them, going to her desk and getting the painkillers out of her drawer. Fred filled up a glass of water and went to where Angel had laid Cordelia down on the sofa.

" You're a saint." Cordy said faintly to Wes, as he handed her the pills, and Fred followed quickly with the water.

"She ok?" Faith asked Elena nervously. The witch had come out of the inner offices when she heard everyone come back, and Faith had gravitated towards her.

"You don't know about the visions?" Elena asked.

"No, I do. But damn…"

"Yea."

"Cordy, what did you see?" Angel asked gently.

"You're not gonna be happy…" As she told him exactly what the PTB had sent her.

"God dammit." Angel muttered, when she had finished.

"Told ya so."

Sunnydale

"I got it!" Dawn called, as the phone rang. She got up off the couch and moved to the phone in the kitchen. " 'Yello?"

"Hey Dawn. Is Willow available, by any chance?" Wesley's voice asked on the other end of the line.

"Sure, Wesley, just a second. WILLOW!" She screamed, without covering the mouthpiece. Wes winced and held the phone away from his ear.

"She's coming." Dawn said. "Send lots of hugs to everyone on your end."

'Won't have to' He thought. But instead, he just said, "Ok, I will. Have a good night."

Willow came on the phone. "Wesley?"

"Yes, Hello Willow. I trust everything's going well in Sunnydale?"

"Yep. Everyone's good. What's up?" She asked…Wes didn't call unless he had a reason…she didn't think 'small talk' was in his vocabulary.

"Well…Cordelia had a vision." He paused while he waited for her to ask 'What?' But she didn't…. he assumed she'd been told about Cordy's visions by someone else. Or possibly Cordelia herself. He'd have to ask about that later.

"She saw Spike and Dru opening the Hellmouth, and insisted I call you right away."

"Never mess around with pleasantries, do ya?" She joked. "I was actually thinking about calling you guys. Dawn and Giles spotted Dru when they went out on patrol earlier tonight. I didn't know if it was serious or not, but they did hear Dru say something about 'the toy box…' guess she was talkin' about the Hellmouth." Willow thought for a moment. "But it had to have been a big deal, if Cordy thought we needed to know….did she see Drusilla actually get it open?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Well, can I talk to her? Maybe Cordelia forgot something."

"Sorry, she's resting." Wes said.

"Oh…are the visions still taking a lot out of her?" Willow asked, concerned.

"She's been doing better, but its still hard. I'll let her know you asked. Or, you can ask her yourself."

"What?" Willow was confused. "I thought you said she was resting…"

"Well, she is. But I haven't gotten to the best part. What's Cordelia famous for?"

Willow ticked off things. "Her tactless wit. Her status as Ice Queen of Sunnydale High. Her shoe collection. Her-"

"No. Maybe I should rephrase that."

"Please, and thank you."

"She's set her mind to coming up there and making sure everything's alright. And staying until….how did she put it? 'We've ran their skanky vampire asses out of town."

"How very Valley-Girl-Western of her." Willow sighed. "When are you all planning on coming?"

"Well, she was ready to leave as soon as she'd packed enough clothing, but Angel convinced her to wait until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes. I'm terribly sorry its such short notice, but.."

"No, its ok. We just need to get Xander prepared."

"What? Why?"

"Um, so he doesn't kill Angel and/or get into a bitching match with Cordelia? Really, either one of those is an acceptable scenario." Willow pointed out.

"Oh. Quite right."

Willow heard someone screaming on Wesley's end. "Is everything ok?"

She was fairly certain he was cleaning his glasses as he paused. Wes sighed before he answered. "I believe so…just another shouting match, nothing unusual."

Willow laughed…it was all she could think to do. Her brain was a little overloaded at the moment. "How many of you guys can we expect?" She asked, bracing herself for his response.

"Well, me, of course. Cordy and Angel will both insist on coming, and Elena will probably tag along too. Oh…..andfaith." He mumbled the last part so quickly, Willow figured she hadn't heard him right.

"Sorry, missed that last bit. What'd you say?"

"And Faith."

"Oh. Heh. This is gonna be a barrel of monkeys." Willow rubbed her temples as she hung the phone up.

"Hey, Dawnie?" She called. "Make some room, we're gonna have some company."