Fic: What The Hell(mouth) Happened?

Author: mkcrl120

Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.

Summary: I'm writing some of these, as I've come up with ideas that I honestly don't know what I'll be doing when the Ultimate series gets that far. In the meantime, these won't go away from my brain unless I do something with them. Warning: It may be a standalone it may be spoilers for something later; only time will tell.

Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

Setting: Season 3 - I think you'll recognise when.

What The Hell(mouth) Happened? - 5/?

Jesse hadn't spoken for at least twenty minutes. Not since Cordelia's confession. Once their initial shock had subsided, the others had attempted to discover the exact circumstances of his death. Willow being mostly concerned with who it was that had killed him.

Cordelia had ignored the questions instead focusing entirely on Jesse's reaction. Although she hadn't really known him; and if truth be known, was only vaguely aware of him as yet another of those passing boys that had fancied her but were beneath her status; she still felt bad about having to mention it. This had been what she'd been avoiding since she'd arrived in this freaky universe. She was also fully aware that the person who she'd been when Jesse was last alive; was, in this dimension, up until a few hours ago, working hard to maintain her Queen Bitch status on the high school hierarchy. She was seriously wondering if she could ever go back to being that person.

Since making the Wish, she'd thought long and hard about what she'd done. Sure, superficially, she'd been a better position than in the other dimension, but it wasn't perfect. She was seriously considering whether or not the perfect result would have been accepting Xander back. That way she could have continued to work alongside the Slayer's gang, which in her dimension Xander had playfully named the Scoobies; which, she had to admit, did involve risking their lives virtually daily, but as these people had pointed out to her, she didn't seem that safe anyway, guess that what comes of living on a Hellmouth, whether you were aware of it or not.

She began to wonder if after taking Xander back she could have really worked towards re-establishing her status. Scarily, she figured if she could have got Buffy's help it would have been easy. Remembering back to the Homecoming Dance, she realised that if she'd been working alongside Buffy instead of actively trying to one-up one another, then it would have been no contest at all... Holly and Michelle... pah.

She was brought out of her internal debate by Jesse finally asking a question.

"How did I die?" His voice had no trace of emotion in it. It was like he was asking for the answer to a question from a school textbook.

"I'm not sure... it was a vampire."

"You know about vampires, but you're not sure?" Willow asked, clearly upset.

"I didn't know back then." Cordelia admitted. "I went to the funeral... but there was no coffin or anything."

"Why no coffin?" Giles asked, at the others look he continued. "As she said, this isn't about you... but I must confess to being curious, if this other Jesse was the victim of a vampire attack, then there are only two options; he was primarily used as a source for blood, or as an intended minion. Either way, there would have been a body."

Most of them reacted at the word body. From Xander's sweaty palms, to Willow's tears, to both Slayer's feeling the urge to hit something. This was their friend, this wasn't the same as any of the other vampire victims they ran into. They hadn't felt this bad in over a year, but this was a thousand times worse than that event.

Cordelia interrupted their musings, "He went missing... Xander... my Xander told me that they first knew about it when Jesse was used as bait in a trap. Except that he had also been turned. Xander himself had to stake him." She remembered him telling her the event after Angelus had started to wreak havoc amongst the group. From their point of view, although all vampire attacks were unfortunate, those were the only events which had hit them at a personal level.

"Do you know who did it?" Buffy asked, swearing to herself that if that vampire was still alive, then they'd deal with it asap. To end the risk there and then.

Cordelia wasn't sure what to say. "We had suspicions. We think it was Darla. That was the vampire that originally lured Jesse out, Buffy had recognised her later in a battle over mistaken identity with Angel." That much was true, but in this case she'd expanded the truth slightly to make it sound more confident. She justified it in her mind, Darla was Angel's sire, that much she was certain about. If Darla was still around in this dimension, then she needed to be taken out fast.

"Darla?" Faith asked, this was getting confusing. First Angel now Darla. At what point were these people getting on first term names with vampires. She could only think of three names she knew off hand. Two because they'd followed her from Boston, and one because he'd joined forces with the surviving Bostonian vampire.

"Died before you were called... Angel killed her. He caught her trying to con her way into my mother's house."

"Jeez Joyce was okay, though right?" Now Faith was worried, the Summers had opened their home to her. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to repay them.

"Didn't make it in. Invitation remember? Angel attacked her in the street. My mom saw him throw her into a tree and called the police on him. Luckily the fight was taken away from my house, mom never saw Angel eventually stake her."

"Lucky for her, eh?"

"Lucky for him too. Remember at that point, we didn't know he was a vampire. I told him off for attacking a vampire alone, never mind one as old and as dangerous as Darla."

Xander smiled at the memory.

Buffy saw his look and slapped his arm playfully. "How was I to know he was her childe? We were hardly close."

Xander was struggling to contain a laugh, "I'm just remembering your face when you told him to always carry a stake and a cross and then handed him to them."

"My face..? You leapt a mile."

"Yeah... well. There was the bonus that he left us alone for a week or so... and now I remember... Hah... You heard me. Hah. I was right, you were wrong. Come on admit it."

Buffy was confused, "Admit what?"

"I told you he creeped me out, and I was certain he fancied you... but you shrugged it off, saying I was imagining things... that's my 'Hah'..."

Jesse's cold voice shocked them out of the teasing that was inevitably about to start. "As much fun as this is, can we get back to the part where I'm dead."

"Shit... sorry bud." Xander apologised. Buffy nodded her agreement, and remained silent.

"How did Darla get me?"

"What..?" Cordelia was confused.

"Jess that's a little bit morbid." Faith tried to tell him.

Jesse expanded upon his original statement. "How did she get me? Did she go for me, instead of Buffy's mom or something?"

"I don't know the details. It was the same time Buffy came to town. Xander told me Darla picked you up in the Bronze." Cordelia desperately tried to remember anything else Xander may have told her.

"When Buffy came to town?" Jesse asked confused. "When did Buffy come to town?"

"About two years ago... I don't remember the date... she arrived during the middle of term time, think it was some time before Christmas."

"Probably same as this dimension then." Buffy stated confirming when she'd moved.

"So why was Darla picking him up at the Bronze?" Willow asked the question, both herself and Jesse were thinking.

"Hey that's right." Buffy commented.

"What?" Cordelia looked between everyone else. They all knew something she didn't, that much was obvious this was their reality after all, but she needed to know what it was.

"Getting turned. It's a pretty harsh punishment for cheating on your girlfriend..." Jesse said aloud, stating the joke before anyone else did.

"Don't say that... don't say that." Willow shouted at him. "She was a vampire... she's stronger than you... she probably forced you outside or something."

"What?" Cordelia asked.

"We were together at the time. I still don't understand how you could have gone with her, and we didn't do anything." Willow was trying not to cry.

"Even if you didn't know what you were dealing with... like it was really early after I moved here. I would have done something." Buffy promised them both, "I know I would..." she trailed off.

"Okay... bad newsflash of the night number two..." Cordelia said, waiting til she had everyone's attention. "You two weren't together in my reality. Ever. Xander himself found out about Buffy being the Slayer on the first day, she was there. Both of you were picked up by vampires sometime after that, I'm not sure when, but it was also the first time Xander had seen vampires."

"What..?" Willow shouted.

"Wilow, you'd been picked up as well. Xander went with Buffy to save you two... somehow Buffy got involved in a fight with several vampires, and she told you all to run." Faith and Buffy both nodded to show they agreed that's what they would have done. "You got ambushed while making your escape. Willow and Xander survived... Jesse had gone. Xander considered that one of his greatest failures." At their looks she confessed, "By the time I dated him, he was kinda handy to have around in a vampire fight. He blamed himself for a long time."

"We're both kinda handy to have around in a vampire fight." Jesse corrected her. "It wouldn't have been his fault, I can handle anything Xander can."

Xander bit back a challenging comment, this was his best friend's death being discussed here.

"You are now." Buffy corrected him. "But when I first arrived, neither of you had any experience... if that'd happened here and I couldn't rescue you..." She trailed off letting them all accept that facts.

"So I died cos we weren't together?" Jesse asked, looking Willow in the eye. "And you tried to deny it, when I said you were the best thing to happen to me."

Willow leant in for the kiss. She wasn't disappointed.

"So you made friends with Willow in this reality too?" Cordy asked, she thought she'd worked this out now. At Buffy's nod she asked. "So instead of three friends hanging around... it was four, which in reality were two third-wheels and a couple. That's why you started to date Xander... throw in Willow not pining for Xander this time round."

"And the inevitable happened." Buffy said, holding Xander's hand. Cordelia stared at their interlocked fingers for a few seconds, a little bit of jealousy still visible in her reaction.

"So what happens now?" Xander asked.

"What..?" Giles queried.

"Can we send Cordy back to her own reality... and if we do does this one end?" Xander asked.

"What..?" Buffy was shocked.

"I've seen enough time-travel films and programmes to know that we can't be sure if this reality survives." Xander asked.

"Shit..." Faith commented.

Cordelia was about to expand further when she heard the library doors swing open. The person walking through was someone she'd never expected to see again.

"Ms Calendar?" She asked incredulously.

End chapter five