Connor looks out his window at the falling flaming rocks. "Is it like this everywhere?"

"No. Just here, I think," Cordelia responds.

"I wonder if Dawn's seeing the same thing." Cordy scowls. "Maybe Buffy's outside and she got hit." Cordy can't help but smile at that thought. But Connor's previous comment worries her. He had only spent a matter of minutes with her.

"You're not still hung up on little Dawny, are you, Connor?"

"What's hung up?"

"Do you feel about her the way you feel about me?" Connor thinks about this.

"I guess not." Cordy takes his shoulders and sits Connor down on his bed so she's standing right in front of him. "She's, you know, a girl. You're a woman." Cordy smiles angelically and puts her right hand to his left cheek.

"And tonight, you're going to become a man." Connor looks wide-eyed and stunned as she slowly leans forward, kisses Connor on the lips and falls on top of him.

The next morning, Connor is none-too-pleased with Cordy's conflicted response to their night together. "So you wish it hadn't happened?"

"I didn't say that."

"No. You wish it had, and then the Earth ended!"

"No Connor."

"You wish you were dead, so you didn't have to see me when you woke up!"

"That's ridiculous." Connor grabs a knife, pushes Cordy against the wall and puts the knife to her throat.

"Maybe I can give you what you want." Cordy's genuinely terrified now that Connor has that homicidal glint in his eye.

"Connor, put the knife down." He jabs it against her flesh without piercing the skin. She screams. "Please. Connor, I love you."

"Well you sure have a funny way of showing it." He walks away. Cordy breathes several huge sighs of relief. "You know he doesn't love you," Connor says before storming out.

Before the zombie-filled affair at Wolfram & Hart, Angel quizzed Cordy about the finger marks and scratches on her neck. She tried to claim it was the Beast, but Angel wasn't buying it. Afterwards, he takes Connor to his room at the Hyperion and confronts his badly-injured son. "I didn't hurt her. I could never - "

"Did you want more than she would give you?" Though he prays this isn't the case, Angel suspects his moody, violent son tried to force himself on her sometime after the clearly consentual relations he saw the night before.

"You're the one who wants what he can't get. Isn't that what this is about?" Angel grab Connor's throat.

"I don't want anyone doing this to her." He pushes Connor back, and his son falls on a couch against the wall and puts his hand to his throat.

"I want to make her happy. You just make her confused and miserable. You don't believe me? Tell her you don't love Buffy." Connor stands up and get in his father's face. Angel slaps him with the back of his right hand. Connor falls down. "Haven't I been through enough today?"

"You lay another hand on her - "

"What if she wants me to?," Connor asks with a devilish smirk. Angel gulps and tries to maintain his composure. He can't stand to have Cordy around at the moment. But he doesn't want to put her with a hormonally-charged, super-powered adolescent who has trouble taking no for an answer. But Cordy's a big girl, so he leaves it up to her. And, to Angel's relief and dismay, she chooses to go.

"I'm sorry," Connor says when they get home. "I didn't mean to scare you. I love you, Cordy." She hugs him. Connor starts kissing her neck, and she quickly backs away. Connor glares at her, and she appears frightened. "Am I a monster?"

"A monster? No! God, no. You're a miracle."

"The Beast is here because of me."

"That's not true."

"Everyone else thinks it. They're scared of me. Now you're scared of me."

"I'm not scared of you. I'm just, nervous. Not about you. About everything."

"You keep saying I'm like my father. He hurt people."

"He helps people."

"He did both. What if I do both? Sometimes I save people. Then I hurt Angel, and I lied to Fred and Gunn, made them feel bad. Hurt them, in a way. Now I hurt you."

"You did not hurt me. You were angry, but you held back. You did the right thing. Because that's what you do. That's who you are."

"I'm a killer. I like to kill. I'm really good at it."

"Demons. Connor, you kill demons."

"You're part demon. I tried to kill you. Some demons are good. Some people are bad."

"Connor, I don't know where you're going with this, but it's a dark place where you don't belong." Connor laughs.

"Dark places are exactly where I belong."

"You have to reach out to him," Cordy pleads to Angel the next day.

"I think you've already done plenty of that."

"He's in a real scary place right now."

"Well, you helped put him there."

"That has nothing to do with what we did." Angel stares at her. "Okay, maybe a little. But he needs you. And if you're too petty to see that - "

Angel hears the front door open and walks out of his office to see Gwen. She reports what she saw the previous night, they compare notes, and realize what could be happening. Angel heads off with Gwen to the desert to save the sun. Cordy thinks he's just being selfish and avoiding his real problems. After Manny is killed, Angel belatedly realizes Connor could be in danger. But just when the gang, plus Gwen, is about to head out the door, Buffy rushes in.

"Okay, look, I don't have much time, but I need to know what the First Evil said to that psycho pseudo-brat of yours. It's a matter of life and – whoa! Who's the uber-tramp?"

Cordelia smiles. "Uber-tramp. I can't believe I didn't think of that one."

"Let me guess," Gwen says. "Another one of Angel's exes?"

"Another? ANOTHER!?"

"I'm beginning to see that he has a type." Jealous, catty, controlling.

"Yeah, and it isn't rubber-clad comic book girl wannabes." Gwen takes off her left glove.

"Okay then. If that's how you want it. Let's play a quick game of You Show Me Yours And I'll Show You Mine." Cordy smiles. This can't help but go well for her. An alarmed Angel steps between the two women.

"Buffy, this is Gwen. She's helping us on a job."

"Oh, and they made out," Cordy adds.

Buffy looks shocked. "This is what you go for now?"

"Exactly how many women pretend they're dating you?," Gwen asks Angel.

"Can we please focus on the problem at hand," Wesley requests.

"Ya know, keepin' the sun shining," Fred adds.

"So this is what a Slayer looks like," Gunn notes. "She's gonna help us, right?" Against the Beast, they need all the help they can get.

"Is Spike still living with you?," Angel asks. "You really think it's safe to leave him alone, with Dawn and your friends?"

"Did you say Spike?," Gwen asks.