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 probably... mainly for language.

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

What The Hell(mouth) Happened?? - Chapter 18

"I can't say I'm too thrilled at the idea of sitting listen to Giles lecture us either." Cordelia admitted, turning to face Faith now that the car had stopped at the kerb.

"G ain't the problem." Faith mumbled, staring out the passenger window at the apartment block.

"We could just skip it." Cordelia hesistantly suggested.

"Not sure it's worth the hassle." Faith regretfully decided. "There will be lectures on how we could have been killed, and how reporting in is vital to a Watcher's responsibility to their charge... or some similar shit."

"What if we let them know we're alive... but we control how long we talk to them for."

"Once you're in there, you're trapped." Faith informed her. "And this ain't like the library meetings where there's loads of us to share the..."

"I'm not suggesting going in there at all." Cordelia responded.

Faith turned her attention back towards the driver's seat to look at Cordelia, who was grinning while holding a cellular phone in her hand.

"Cool." Faith returned the grin and took the phone while Cordelia, put the car back into gear and started to drive away from Giles' place.

Waiting til they were off the street Giles lived on, Cordelia headed them back towards town while Faith dialled Giles number.

"Come on... pick up." Faith muttered, listening to the ringing sound on the other end.

Cordelia concentrated on driving as they reached an intersection. Faith's voice from beside her, let her know that someone had picked up at the other end.

"Hello, it's me." Faith stated. "Yep, Miss C can you put G on."

Cordelia waited for the lights to go green then made her turn left.

"In Cordy's car." Faith told the person on the other end. "Hey G..." She began waiting for the other person to finish before continuing. "Nah... not much. Staked a couple when out patrolling. Nothing like the other night."

Cordelia watched as Faith scrunched up her face listening to the person on the other end.

"Also went to see Willy. Came into some info on the mein fuhrer glove." She glanced across at Cordelia as she gave that last piece of info. "Reckon that both the location and a 'how to' guide for destroying the glove is in some book at the your library." She paused, obviously listening to Giles' response. "We got it on good authority G, the source is definitely trustworthy."

Cordelia beamed a thousand watt smile. Grinning she revved the engine and proceeded to speed up as she headed towards the Summers home.

"Yeah... we're following Red and Jess now... plan is to go down the library tomorrow and check to see if the info is good. Think we're gonna call it a night."

Cordelia revved the engine noisily again.

"Gotta go G... Jess is losing us and we're trying to keep up. See you tomorrow." Faith hung up before he could respond. "Man, these things are cool... saving time and effort for dealing with Watchers. Might have to get myself one of these."

Cordelia shrugged as she pulled up behind Xander's car. "As long as you're riding with me, then feel free to use it."

"Sweet."

Cordelia stared at her.

"What..?" Faith asked, feeling a little uncomfortable under the gaze.

"Just thinking that I hardly knew you back in my reality, yet here you're the person I speak to most."

"Don't worry about it... no school, didn't live at Buffy's... doesn't sound like I was too social back in yours." Faith commented, trying to imagine what life could have turned out to be like if she'd kept the attitude she'd arrived in Sunnydale with.

Cordelia thought back to what she could remember of Faith, "You only really tried to bond with Buffy. Well, you and Xander kinda teamed up during the return of Angel but there were a lot of mistaken assumptions there." Cordelia turned away briefly.

"Makes sense... me and B have the whole chosen thing in common. And Xander's... well, he's Xander... guess if he's your ex, then you know as well as anyone."

"I don't know about you and Buffy, but you and Xander... I might be slightly responsible for you two not establishing the kind of friendship you have here." Cordelia admitted, feeling slightly guilty.

"Huh?"

"When you came to town you were... there's no real way to desribe the first impression you left in your wake."

"Dropped quite a bombshell, eh?" Faith chuckled.

"Stories of naked alligator wrestling, priests and policemen... added to the fact that you were a Slayer..." Cordelia drifted off.

"Scared I might have tried to take your boy off you..?" Faith smirked, half joking.

"Yes." Cordelia responded in a serious tone. "I already told you that Xander had had feelings for Buffy for over a year before we started seeing each other. What I didn't say is that when him and me started... well we started... there were no prior feelings, lets put it that way."

Faith looked confused, "You think he had feelings for me... or me for him..? I'd only just met him. And if I hadn't seen how he treats Buffy then I'm not certain if he'd have rated much above the other high school guys."

"It's not that... me and Xander were kind of sudden. It was a response to the danger thing... least it was at first. But I knew that we were mainly built on attraction... so I was always aware that maybe one day that might have ran out... I kept an eye on Buffy for that reason, and then you turned up and I could see his interest growing towards yet another Slayer. It worried me... and I may have made sure there was a slight distance between you because of that."

Faith stared back, unsure what to really say to that. Deciding that Cordelia deserved the same level of honesty that she was providing, she quietly responded. "You were right to be careful... especially if I was only trying to be friends with B. I will tell you that getting another girl's guy, really isn't something I'm unfamiliar with. Would never do it to a true friend," she quickly amended. "But in general, if a girl isn't good enough to keep her man, then it's free-for-all in my book."

Cordelia nodded, accepting the truth as it was told. "I'm definitely good enough to keep my man." She stated, then thought about recent occurrances back home. "Least I am if I'm aware of where the competition is... I spent too much time watching Buffy and making sure you didn't get too close, to pay attention to Willow. Didn't factor her in as a threat... they'd known each other forever and even I was aware that she'd had a crush on him. I just figured that they'd decided not to take their friendship down that route... nice choice of timing of them to see if it would have worked."

Faith smiled back, trying to make it seem like a re-assuringly friendly one and not a condescending smirk.

"Well I think I speak for all the girls I know from this reality when I say that we're not going to try and take Scott off you."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Considering I don't know where that's going yet, I'm not too worried about it."

"He didn't call..?" Faith asked shocked.

"We only saw them last night." Cordelia responded. "They shouldn't call yet, that's like a standard definition of uncool."

"Not too used to this officially dating thing." Faith conceded. "Pete called though, he seemed quite eager to see me again."

"Well duh." Cordelia responded. "Let me give you a few pointers so you don't seem too easy." Cordelia responded, not noticing Faith's eyebrows quickly raise. "You shouldn't expect a call this weekend. If anything he should attempt to make contact with you again on Monday at school. If we had agreed to go meet again tonight, then it would have been acceptable, anything else reeks of desperation."

Faith smiled, waiting for her to finish the mini-lecture before making her own challenge. "Or maybe it's just that I'm considerably hotter than you... and my guy wants to see me more than yours does you." She teased back.

"Puh-lease. You may be hot-stuff in the graveyard, but when it comes to living breathing male hearts, I'm the girl that always hits her target."

"Hearts don't breathe," Faith added with a smirk. "Anyway, I know lots of ways to make them pump blood faster."

Cordelia smiled back. "Face it, those two won't know what hit them."

"They should definitely consider themselves lucky that we chose them as the targets." Faith agreed.

"I knew I was going to get along with you." Cordelia answered. "I promise if I do return to my reality, I will do my best to make friends with you there too... any tips on how to do that by the way?"

"Thanks, you don't have to, but..." She trailed off seeing Cordelia's questioning look. "If you do want to... I guess setting me up with a potential nice guy to lay would be a good start."

"I'd offer to let you move in... but Daddy's a bit..."

"Hey... that's above and beyond, really." Faith said, waving her hands in a negative gesture. "I never expected B to invite me in. Thanks for the offer though. You want to come inside..?" She asked, pointing to the house.

Cordelia glanced at the car clock. "It's getting late... and you signed us all up for research tomorrow. If we do have to do it, we may as well be alert so that we only have to do it once."

"Suit yourself." Faith answered, climbing out of the car and heading towards the Summers home. "See ya tomorrow."

Cordelia waved as she restarted the car, pulling off she commented to herself. "When I get back I will definitely try to persuade Faith to move in. It's not like we'd be struggling for rooms. Daddy'll just have to accept it... he probably wouldn't even notice for the first week or so anyway. It might go down easier if she changed her dress sense slightly."

Ten Minutes Previously.
Giles' Place.

Giles hung up the phone and wandered back into the main room to speak to the others.

"That was Faith," he informed his fellow Watcher. "They've just finished their patrol and are heading home."

"Without reporting in..?" Gwendolyn Post asked, not noticing Jenny shaking her head in disbelief next to her.

"That was them reporting in. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. However they did get some information from Willy the Snitch. They believe the answers lie somewhere in the library, we will be meeting them there tomorrow."

Ms Post nodded, glad to be finally getting some help in that situation, 'Soon,' she thought. 'Soon, I can leave this place with the charred remains of the Slayers and their friends as a warning to everyone that I am not to be messed with.'

Remembering that for the moment however, until they found the glove, she had to keep up appearances. "Still, Faith is my Slayer," she added, looking Giles directly in the eye. "If she chooses to fill us in via a phone call, then I am the one who should take it."

Giles sighed and headed towards the kitchen to make himself a nice relaxing cup of tea. Jenny got up and followed him, leaving Ms Post alone with her own thoughts.

End chapter eighteen