Part One: Bullets
7 Months Later
The modern day Nancy Drew and her sidekick Joe Hardy flew down the alley, trying to dodge the bullets fired from the vampire assassins. The bullets ricocheted off of the dirty and dingy dumpsters and brick walls of the alleyway behind Caritas. You would think that just borrowing a few potions from Wolfram & Hart's vault wouldn't call out this much of a firing squad, but then again they weren't exactly borrowing the potions. Cordelia kept up with her partner in crime, Charles Gunn, the badass vampire hunter that had come to work with her and Wesley a couple of months ago, but soon her feet were aching and she was falling behind. Damn shoes!
"Did they stop?" she asked breathlessly as they crouched down behind one of the many stinky, icky and gooey dumpsters.
Gunn poked his bald head out of the side, looking around to see if the coast was clear yet. It appeared to be, but he wasn't taking any chances. Not again. The last time he had left her to check, she'd had a run-in with the vision fairy causing her admittance and long hospital stay to the neuropsychiatry ward at Los Angeles General Hospital.
"Gunn, is it clear?" she asked again, pulling on his jacket and forcing him to answer her.
"Don't know."
"Either it is or it isn't, Gunn."
"Appears to be, but…"
"That's good enough for me." Cordelia said, standing up behind the dumpster and started to walk out into the alley.
"Barbie! You get your white ass back here now!" Gunn yelled at her, pulling her back behind the dumpster. He didn't want to argue with her now, they couldn't afford it.
"Why?"
"Oh, I don't know. Bullets. Target in plain sight." Gunn sarcastically said, latching onto her arm so she wouldn't go all superhero on him again. "We have to wait."
"For what, the sun to come up? That's five hours! I don't think so!" Cordelia yanked her arm out of his grip and walked off again, not bothering to check if the alley was clear, but then wished she had when she ran straight into the gunslinger, or at least one of them.
She looked up into his bright gold eyes and just smiled, knowing that this would be the best part of her whole evening.
"Hi." she said, doing what she did best: flirt. She flirted her way straight into the demon's heart. Literally. Batting her eyes and licking her lips, she flaunted what she had. Biting on her lower lip, she traced her index finger from the corner of his collared shirt down to the button trail, stopping at the third unbuttoned button. "Did you know that you had something on your shirt?"
The demon looked down, taking the bait like a fish and felt the sharp point of wood go through his undead body. His body immediately crumpled, leaving nothing but dust in his place on the floor of the cold alley. She could feel that there were more. It was a weird feeling that she was just starting to get used to. Maybe it was all apart of her new vision package but she didn't know and didn't want to stick around in an alley thinking about it at the moment.
Before she could turn around and start fighting off the rest of the assassins, Gunn swooped in like some big strapping hero, staking most of them and pushing her out of the way for her own safety. She hated when he did that. Staking vampires was the one thing she'd learned in Sunnydale and he knew that she could handle herself. Well, most of the time. Vampires weren't exactly the only demons they'd run into here in Los Angeles, but her only other claim to demon killage was that empath demon using a deadly horn.
Gunn pushed her down the alley, running along the way and not bothering to look back and see if there were more following them.
"This is all your fault!" Gunn yelled at the young seer.
"My fault! How is this my fault? I wasn't the one with the idea of breaking into Wolfram & Hart!"
"No, that was Wes."
"So blame him, not me!"
"Barbie, shut up!" Gunn grabbed hold of her upper arm and with a forceful yank, pulled her into the back door to Caritas otherwise known as their own private entrance. Before she could yell even more, he pushed her towards the main lobby of the bar that they had been coming to for a while now. Gunn stopped to take a much needed breath and pointed over to the dark booth that had also been claimed theirs, where Wesley sat with the scroll spread all over the table.
"Hey Joe, bite me." Cordelia said in her smart tone as her hair flipped to the side and she walked off, leaving him at the bar to catch his much needed breath.
Cordelia and Gunn approached the booth, praying that he had found something, anything to help them out. Gunn pounded his fist on the table to alert the deep-in-thought rogue demon hunter to their arrival and to snap him out of his trance.
"Oh, hello. Back so soon?" Wesley perched his head up to see that his colleagues had returned from their mission.
"Cut the crap. Anything?" Gunn asked as Cordelia slid in beside Wesley, reaching into her shoulder bag and taking out the potions plus her pain killers.
"Still hurting you?" Wesley asked, trying to avoid Gunn at all costs.
"Tell us now, or they'll be hurting you." Cordelia threatened, gulping two of the horse pills down her throat. She wanted this to end; all of it: the pain, the visions, and the endless nights with no sleep and of course, the "End of Days".
"Nothing new. Just the same thing. The vampire will give in and the end of days will start."
"Did it happen to mention vampires who use guns? How stupid is that, they could just bite us if they wanted us dead." Cordelia smartly said, thinking of how stupid vampires using guns really was. Putting her fingers up to her temples and massaging slowly, she tried to relieve the headache that she still had from her lingering vision. The headaches were becoming worse and were dragging on longer as time went by. She had found that Doyle used their first and only kiss to pass on the migraines, the horror movies and the drinking problem onto her.
The pain never stopped. In the in between times when she wasn't watching The Exorcist or Freddy vs. Jason in her mind, she saw the Hardy Boys going at it, bickering about the simple things in life, like what they should get for lunch of better yet, what their agency should be called. After three weeks of fighting over it, Cordelia decided to pull rank and name it herself. CWG Investigations, respectively, had picked up where Angel Investigations left off along with the freaky cases and the awful night hours.
"How much time do we have Wesley?"
"Well, it doesn't say for sure. After the…"
"Wesley, give us a ballpark. How much time?"
"I don't know. That's what I've been trying to decipher but, I'm afraid we need someone a bit more qualified."
"More qualified?" Cordelia asked, setting down the attractive potions that her and Gunn had stolen from the Wolfram & Hart vaults hidden deep in the basement. They were pretty. They were supposed to stop the "End of Days" as the prophecy said. A blue liquid sparkled in the dim lighting of the dark booth in one vile and in the other was a yellow-golden liquid that looked more like goop than champagne, as Gunn compared it to back in the vault.
Wesley let his spectacles fall off of his face and placed them on the table, rubbing his eyes of the strain and looked over at Cordelia. Before Wesley could get one syllable out of his mouth, she cut him off again.
"Are you talking about what and who I think you're talking about? The vamp…man who left me right after…" Cordelia avoided saying his name aloud. She didn't want to see him. Scratch that, she wanted to see him, but not in Sunnydale, not when he would be permanently attached to the Slayer's waist and was at her every beckon call. Sure, the prophecy concerned him, had happened because of him, but she was in no way wanting to see him.
"That's not the expert I was referring to. But you will have to see him, Cordelia. I've no doubt about that."
"And there's no other way or option?" Cordelia asked, taking a drink of the vodka that Lorne had brought over for her moments earlier. She prayed silently that there was and as Wesley nodded his head, she smiled big, hoping that they could accomplish the other way. But once he said the other option aloud, she opted for Sunnydale. The mere thought about time jumping back a couple of million centuries ago was horrifying and her smile disappeared. She wasn't on the bandwagon for going back in time and neither were they.
Cordelia looked at her partners in crime and eventually gave in, knowing this was the only way that they were going to prevent and survive the "End of Days".
The back of Wesley's Jeep was not comfortable at all and you know the stereotype of how everyone English is supposed to be proper and neat, well Wesley was anything but. Dirty sweaters, bags from fast food places and old newspapers crowded the floor and crunched beneath her feet causing her to forgo any plans of sleep that she may have had planned for this trip. Plus, Gunn's awful singing voice was not helping either.
Cordelia lifted her head from the cushioned seat and sat up, wiping her eyes of the exhaustion they and her body had racked up. She watched the dark road before them realizing that there was no turning back. They were headed to the one place that she didn't want to go. Sure, Sunnydale had been a big part of her life, I mean, she grew up here but she didn't want to come back. She had moved on, went on to better things. She had changed. Cordelia cringed at the thought of even thinking of that word. Plus, seeing him, Angel, again wouldn't exactly put a big million dollar smile on her face either. He had left her right after they had sex and didn't even call afterwards. But then again, he was a man and men did that and the fact that he was on Miss Likes-to-Slay's leash was also a factor.
Cordelia blinked her eyes and stared out the window at the darkened road. She didn't want to do this, but she knew if she wanted to live past her twenty second birthday, then she had to do this. They passed the welcome sign and Cordelia started to recognize the street that they were driving on. Houses that looked like mini castles were lined up all in a row, all of them reminding her of her high school days where she used to brag about living in a home like this. But then again, the house she lived in wasn't a home. She was more at home in the Jeep with her Hardy Boys than she had even been in Sunnydale. She was more at home back in Los Angeles with the ghost that took care of her and was there, promising never to leave. Of course he couldn't, but that was beside the point.
They reached the end of the street and as soon as Wesley turned the corner onto the next street, she saw the headlights behind them again. The car had been following them since the last gas station and Cordelia's instinct went into play.
"Wesley…"
"Yes, Cordelia."
"We're being followed." She alerted him, prompting Gunn to stop his singing and turn his head while Wesley checked his rear view mirror, slowing the car down as he did.
"She's right." Gunn confirmed, turning his head back around.
"She's always right." Wesley paused, pulling his eyes back to the road. "Cordelia, you remember the alleys here?"
"I'm gonna have to, aren't I?" Cordelia asked, biting her lip with the lack of anticipation that was amounting in her body and mind. Wesley's beady eyes behind his frames looked back at her through the mirror and told her the answer was yes. "I should, I mean, if I got one thing out of dating Xander Harris it was a map of the alleys when we were sleuthing with the Slayer." Cordelia said, letting an oh-what-the-hell sigh out of her tired body.
Wesley pulled to the side of the road, shutting the engine off as the car past them slowly. They didn't get a good look at the driver or the passengers; all they knew was that they needed to get out of the car and to Giles quickly, before anything more happened.
As they climbed out of the Jeep, each of them with a bag in their hand or over their shoulder, they realized that they had thought too soon about losing the car in the streets of Sunnydale. The car came back around with two men leaning out of the windows, pointing rifles straight at them.
They didn't have to think about their course of action as they ran for their lives into the tiny passageway that was nearest to them. Cordelia could hear doors opening and slamming behind them and she ran faster as she came out of the passage into a clearing and was nearly run over by Gunn and Wesley.
"Come on Barbie, let's go! We gotta go!" Gunn huffed, turning his head back towards the alley they had just come out of and urged her to pick one of the alleys.
"Hold on Joe! I gotta think!"
"Not the best time for you to be thinking, Nancy." Wesley added, following Gunn's gaze to locate their pursuers.
"Cordy!"
"Okay, okay. This way." Cordelia said, pointing to the left alleyway and ran towards it. The assassins were gaining ground on the three gumshoes and they needed to find shelter quick it they were going to survive the night. She turned right this time and whirled her head around, making sure that Wesley and Gunn were with her. And they were, thank God.
She looked around her surroundings and recognized the street. This was Main Street. This was where she used to drink coffee with her old friends and where she would walk home with the Scoobies after a night at the Bronze. She was thinking too much. Shaking her head of the recollection she saw the illuminating light up ahead and ran towards it. The Magic Box's sign was bright and it seemed to be the only business open on the usually bust street this time of night.
"Here!" She yelled to alert the guys. Cordelia grabbed a hold of the doorknob and flew into The Magic Box, alerting the patrons and workers to their arrival. Cordelia leaned up against the door and let her breath out, relieved that they had found shelter. She opened her eyes back up and took a look around the store and although she had expected to see him during her visit, she wasn't expecting to see him this soon.
"Angel." she sighed as he moved forward a step and just stared.
"Cordelia…" he responded back, equally amazed that she was standing in front of him.
"Cordy!" Gunn pulled her attention back to the assassins and shushed her, listening to the footsteps become louder and the voices became clearer. Peeking out the window, Gunn could see the assassins surround the entrance and lift their rifles towards the store. "Everyone get down!"
Cordelia huddled closer to Gunn and wished it all gone. This was not the way that she wanted to come back to Sunnydale and definitely not the way that she wanted to reacquaint herself with the Scoobies and Angel. She remained close to Gunn, hidden from the bullets but the windows didn't and neither did part of the door.
"Is it over yet?" Cordelia whispered, directing the question mainly towards Wesley and Gunn.
"Yea, for now." Gunn answered pulling her up off the ground with him and making sure she was safe and bullet free. Wesley still sat on the floor and held his hand to his side as the blood seeped through the slits of his fingers.
"Okay, Wesley. Hold on. Just hold on." Cordelia crouched down again next to his side and checked the wound. It wasn't deep but it caused enough pain for Wesley to stay down. Cordelia scolded herself for letting this happen to him, she couldn't lose him. She wasn't going to lose anyone else.
Looking back to where she first spotted Angel and most of the Scoobies, she pinpointed Giles out of the bunch and immediately called to him. "Giles! First Aid now!"
Peroxide hissed and sizzled as Cordelia held the soaked gauze to Wesley's wound on his torso and watched as he flinched. The random bullet that was no lodged somewhere in one of the bookshelves, nicked a piece of Wesley's torso and caused it to bleed, prompting the seer to bring out the part time nurse in her. Wesley flinched again as she pressed the gauze closer to the laceration, this time letting the "owww" out of his system.
"Suck it up."
"You try having a wound like this. It hurts and you're not helping any."
"Been there, done that," she commented, taking out some clear gauze and tape from the first aid kit and making a bandage for his wound. Cordelia could feel the Scoobies gazes on them and she didn't blame them. It was still a mystery to her why she went along with this plan. Right now, time jumping a million years didn't seem so bad.
She took a seat next to Wesley, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the pictures of the night's events rerunning in her mind. Gunn waltzed back into the store, nodding towards them, silently telling them that the coast was clear. At least for now it was.
"Not to rush you or anything, but will somebody please explain to me why my front windows are now missing and you are back in Sunnydale?" Giles raised the question, whipping his glasses off his face and taking out his handkerchief to wipe them off.
"Oh, sorry about that man. We'll find a way to replace them. By the way, I'm Charles Gunn." Gunn reached out his hand to introduce himself, but Giles didn't bite. Shrugging it off, Gunn motioned to Cordelia for her bag. Reaching into the raggedy shoulder bag that Cordelia had had since her move to Los Angeles, he pulled out the bronze plated tube and handed it to the Slayer's watcher. "And this is why we're here. It's what everyone is after."
"Why are they after this…and you?" Giles asked as he took the tube from Gunn's outreached hand and unraveled the scroll inside.
"We stole it. Had too. It was a matter of life and death." Gunn stated, looking straight at Cordelia. That was when the trip down memory lane began: the hospital, the medicine pumping through her veins making her a vegetable, the breaking into Wolfram & Hart's vault all to save Cordelia. And in his and Wesley's mind, it was all worth it.
"And while we had it in our possession, we uncovered something a little more serious." Wesley announced, twisting his body around to face Giles as he rolled out the scroll and started to read the tiny Hebrew mixed with Tuscan and Latin languages.
"What did you find?" Angel then peeped up, breaking his concentrated gaze on Cordelia. He had always thought of her as beautiful, but at the moment with her chestnut hair falling just about her shoulders and blocking a part of her face and of course seeing her just in just plain blue jeans and a worn out tee shirt made her even more beautiful.
He had always felt guilty about leaving her that night, the reason being even more boggling than he would like to about. If he had known that Buffy would do the same, having a three month long public affair with Riley Finn, he probably would've stayed. He should've stayed. Their on-again, off-again relationship was getting old and tiresome. They only reason that he or Buffy did it was for the human touch, the sex. That was the only reason nowadays. Right now they were on the 'off' mode, but tomorrow would probably be a different story, a different reason.
Angel kept an eye on Cordelia and watched as her honey highlighted chestnut ahri swooped from behind her ear to in front of her face. He found himself thinking of that night. It was the first time in a long time that he had felt…anything. Love, want, desire. He felt those things with Cordelia. He didn't feel those things with Buffy, not anymore.
"The what?" Giles inquired again after Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia had voiced the problem at hand.
"The End of Days," Gunn repeated as Cordelia got up and walked straight up to Angel, staring right back at him with the hurt and anger in her eyes.
"Ring any bells?"