Part Four: And on the third day

The cashier tapped her newly manicured fingernails atop the countertop, waiting for Cordelia to fish the cash that Wesley gave her from her jeans pocket. Setting down the change, she lifted the coffee carrier into her arms, sniffing the cinnamon-hinted caffeinated goodness and then started to walk back towards the Magic Box.

The sun was finally out and the day was just starting, so why wasn't she smiling? Simple question, complicated answer. She wanted to blame this all on Angel, but it wasn't completely his fault. It was partly her fault too. She had let him kiss her, let him be in the same room with her and she had even let him see the worst: a vision. Those damn visions were supposed to be his mission, not hers, Wesley's or Gunn's. They didn't have anything to atone for. Or did they? Cordelia stopped and thought about that for a second. If they did, it sure wasn't as bad as one hundred and fifty years of massacring half of Europe.

Cordelia pulled her gaze back up to the road and continued on her path back to the store where everyone was waiting around for their morning coffee. Well, at least Wesley and Gunn were and that's all who wanted the coffee. But if she had to bet on them, they would be sleeping again.

They could sleep through anything. She, on the other hand, hadn't gotten much sleep last night – or the night before that and the night before that. She'd figured she'd gotten less than twelve hours sleep in the past week. So much for her beauty sleep that she needed for that inevitable stardom she had planned.

Truth was that she hardly cared about that anymore even though she still dreamed that it would happen one day. All she cared about nowadays was living to see the sun rise the next day. And at this exact moment, she was caring about how much Angel affected her. Since the kiss on her hand, she hadn't been able to concentrate on the prophecy. All she could think about were his lips pressed up against her skin. Even the mere thought of it made her hand tingle and shivers were sent up her spine. Why was she feeling this way? She shouldn't be feeling this way about a vampire…man. He was a man now; a full human being. One who'd left her – twice. She did not get giddy or become all knocky in the knees like a schoolgirl with a crush when it came to guys. Nope, she was the one who made them giddy and had them chasing after her.

Shaking the feeling away, she once again pulled her gaze up from her feet to downtown Sunnydale's Main street. She hadn't even walked two blocks and she was already looking behind her for followers. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Once, the Queen C, nastiest girl in Sunnydale who didn't take crap from anyone was now reduced to a paranoid, struggling to live and cursed clairvoyant.

Yep, paranoid, clairvoyant, dying, that about summed it up, but of course, no one but her knew about the last. It had been a slow process up until now when the visions were on schedule like clockwork. The doctors were baffled and her best friends were clueless. After all this time, they still thought she was going on auditions to national commercials. She had stopped auditioning for commercials and stopped acting altogether after J'heira came into and almost cost them their lives. Then there was Gunn, leaving absolutely no time for acting. She was to busy trying to keep the both of them from killing each other and trying to manage all the demon-y cases and then was the whole situation with a lonely Dennis…anyway you looked at it she was too busy with real life to deal with a dream that was probably never going to come true.

Cordelia eyed the sign above the Magic Box and prayed Wesley & Gunn were awake and not fighting with the Scoobies again. She knew from experience that both parties weren't the friendliest people in the morning. And with Wesley and Gunn, even the word 'friendliest' wasn't the word to use to describe them. Monstrous, grumpy, those were words to describe them.

Sweeping her hair out of her face, Cordelia saw someone walking towards her. Brown coat. She'd seen that brown coat before.

"Lorne?" she whispered to herself as he stopped her in her tracks and his green hand covered the small of her back and lead her back towards the Magic Box. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching Dennis…and the office!" Cordelia raised her voice a bit towards him.

"Questions later, darling. We got problems, big problems," he revealed to her, ushering her into the entrance of the Magic Box and pulling off his hat like the hero of a crime novel. He went to shut the blinds on the window but wasn't surprised to see that there were wooden slats covering the giant opening. "Let me guess, Wolfram & Hart?" he turned back around to ask her as she nodded and he leapt down the landing with twenty-four beady eyes looking back at him.

"Lorne?" Wesley looked up from the scroll and took the wire frames off of his face as a creased brow appeared on his forehead. "What are you doing here?"

But before Lorne could open his mouth, he ducked for cover before Buffy swung the axe directly at his head. Gunn hadn't been fast enough to stop her from taking a second swing at him, moving fast and backing him up into a corner. Gunn quickly grabbed the axe before she actually finished her vampire slayer duties.

"What are you doing?" Buffy cried out, looking back at Gunn with her axe in his hands.

"The question is, what are you doing?"

"Slaying. If Cordelia and Wesley didn't tell you, I'm the Slayer, and slaying is what I do," Buffy said with a sassy attitude and placed her hands upon her hips. Buffy had reluctantly come on board with the rest of the new Scoobies and tried to help the sleuths with their prophecy, but also explained that if anything concerning Glory came up, she would do a 180 and follow that. Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn had completely agreed and understood. Since Joyce Summers had passed, Dawn was Buffy's everything, just like they were each other's everything. Lorne stood back up from his corner and tried to straighten out his jacket while Buffy argued with Gunn.

"Yo, Blondie, I get that you're a slayer. But Lorne's good," Gunn reasoned and equally snapped back at her.

"He's green!"

"Yep, I feel the love in this room," Lorne sarcastically added to their mini-argument, "especially coming from that corner." He pointed over towards Anya and Xander who were silently observing the quarrel. Cordelia, with her signature coffee in hand, shot him a look to stay out of it for his own good.

"He's a demon," Buffy elaborated, walking slowly back up to him that made him retreat his steps back into the shaded corner between a couple of bookshelves. "He's a soulless, evil, monstrous, green demon."

"Hey now," Lorne said, offended, "I'm not monstrous, and I may not have a soul but…"

"So is your shadow, Buffy," Cordelia cut him off just in time that made Buffy stop her gait to spin around and look at her.

"Excuse me?"

"Spike. He's a demon, why don't you kill him?" Cordelia set her coffee down on the table and stood up from her seat on the bench.

"Because, he's not evil, he's good, or at least trying to be," Buffy paused, looking over at Spike and letting out a half hearted smile.

"So is Lorne. Good. Lorne's good," Cordelia said, her eyes wandering to all the other Scoobies in the room so they got the point across. "Do you honestly think he would still be here and we would know his name otherwise?"

The others nodded their heads and let out deep grunts of acceptance and okay's. But Buffy was still not convinced.

"He's a demon!" she argued again, Spike coming up behind her and standing their ground together.

Cordelia turned again, catching sight of Angel's wandering eyes that were on her and Lorne at the moment, not on Spike and Buffy. Dammit, why did he have to be here? Now she couldn't recall what she was going to say. Damn that vam…man. Closing her eyes, she trailed her mind back to Lorne and defending him against the Slayer.

"Okay Buffy, I'll make you a deal: you stake Spike and I'll get rid of Lorne," Cordelia put the offer on the table making Buffy speechless. "That's what I thought," she finished and turned back to see Lorne go and fish out their cell phone from deep inside one of their bags.

"This," he twirled the phone in his hand, "has an on button. If you have it on, people can actually call you and give you vital information on your scroll!" Lorne raised his voice to them as the sleuths and Scoobies gathered around the table.

Pulling the coffee back up to her lips, Cordelia swallowed the cinnamon caffeinated liquid as she prepared herself to concentrate on the prophecy and not Angel's hand that just brushed her side. Trying to avoid all contact with and thought of him, she nearly missed Lorne's speech.

"Cordy, you're gonna wanna sit down for this next one," Lorne advised her.

"Why?"

"Just sit down," he said again, but she didn't budge. Slamming the now empty coffee container down on the table, she crossed her arms and shot him another evil eye that she was so good at doing. "Suit yourself," Lorne paused and took a seat on the bench, watching as Wesley took down every word that he was saying.

"Lorne!" Cordelia yelled at him, wanting him to get on with it and quit leaving them all in suspense.

"The Scourge."

"What?" her words were barely above a whisper as her heart sank down into her stomach. "What…what did you say?"

"I told you to sit down."

"Oh my God," Cordelia raked her fingers through her hair and started to pace in a lop-sided circle by the table, "they're back? How can they be back? I thought, they left or something happened and they vanished and oh my God, Reiff…he's supposed to be in LA and…and…this can't be happening," she rambled on as the others except for Lorne and Wesley became confused.

"I'm sorry sugar lips, but it is. They're planning to bring everything back. The Scourge, the Order and even Vocah. They're calling it The Death," Lorne said as Wesley's pen stopped when he quickly went to reference the scroll.

"Wolfram & Hart?" Gunn questioned as Lorne nodded his head. "Wait, the Order? What's the Order?" Gunn stood up from his spot on the moveable staircase and walked over by Cordelia's side.

"The Order of Aurelius," Wesley pointed out as he lifted his eyes from the scroll, "I think everyone here knows of that Order. But I don't see how we could've missed this. Where did you get the information Lorne?" Wesley looked back to the Pylean who was still getting weird looks from half of the Scoobies.

"He read someone, right?" Cordelia answered for him as she took Gunn's coffee away from him and started to drink it.

"Hey!"

"I bought it."

"With our money," he enunciated and took the coffee back from her hands. "You okay?"

"No, I'm not okay," she said, grabbing Wesley's cup of coffee and finding her way to the front door again. Gunn went to go after her but was stopped by Wesley.

"Don't. Not yet," he advised him, pulling both of their attention's back to Lorne and the scroll. The Death, Lorne had revealed, was Wolfram & Hart's way of speeding up the End of Days. From the Order of Aurelius to Vocah to The Scourge, the sleuths had definitely met their matches and they still had no clue how to stop it.

Angel's eyes stared at the front door, praying that Cordelia would walk back into the shop with that coffee in hand. He wanted her to walk back in, needed her to walk back in. He felt a pat on his back and turned his head around to see Gunn smirking at him, like he knew what he was thinking about.

"Go, bring her back," he said as his attention was beckoned by Wesley yelling his name for the second time. Angel grabbed his keys off of the bookshelf and watched as Buffy's mouth opened up in complete protest. He didn't care about her opinion thought, not now. Right now, he needed to be with Cordelia and nothing or no one was going to stop him.

Cordelia walked back down main street, coffee in hand and wiped the tears that were strolling down her cheeks away for the third time. Seven months, three weeks, three days and eleven hours ago she had lost it; lost him. You would think that after that much time, a person would be able to deal with it; deal with the loss of the one thing in your life that you thought would remain constant.

But she knew she couldn't get over it, she would never get over it. How could she get over losing her only friend in the world? It was impossible, literally, physically and mentally impossible. Doyle was her best friend, the only person she had left after her parents were in jail, all her high school friends were either in Europe and driving all the stores to bankruptcy or in college somewhere and Angel had moved back here to be with the one person who didn't seem to bring him happiness anymore.

Looking over to her side, she spotted the man in his black suit and trying to hide something under his jacket but honestly, she didn't care right now. She had retreated back into that corner that she had been in when Wesley found her. The only difference now was that she had something to live for: her friends.

Speeding up her walk, she tried not to look back but had to, seeing two more men tailing her path. They never gave up, never and Cordelia was sick of it. Couldn't they just give her two seconds to remember Doyle and cry about it? Tossing the empty coffee container in the trash, she wiped the rest of her tears off of her cheeks and geared herself up for a sprint back to the Magic Box when a black convertible pulled up beside her.

"Get in," Angel forced the passenger side door open and waited, rather impatiently for her to obey the orders, "What are you waiting for? Get in,"

"Why should I?" Stupid question, Cordy, stupid question.

"Don't make me answer that, just get in."

Cordelia looked behind them, seeing the three men in their black suits fish out their guns and race towards her with the intent of take her and most likely Angel, out. Not thinking about it twice, Cordelia pulled herself inside Angel's car and shut the door tight, holding onto the dash as Angel drove off in a frenzy and they both heard the ricochet of a bullet off of his trunk. Yep, this was just how she wanted to start out the day --- by going on a car chase with Angel.

They had made it past the edge of town and slowed down. Cordelia slouched down in the passenger seat and remained silent as they pulled up into a private driveway that turned out to be the back entrance of the old Crawford Mansion.

"What are we doing here?" Cordelia straightened her back and wiped away the set of fresh tears from her face.

"I live here," Angel said, shutting off the engine and hopping out of the car.

"You still live here? I thought you would be shacking up with Buffy still," Cordelia said, getting out of his car and following him up to the door.

"I only lived with Buffy for a short time, but then things happened and I moved out," he explained, holding open the door for her to go inside. "After you."

Cordelia let out a faint smile and lingered on the landing for a moment. Two nights ago, she wanted to rip his throat out for what he did to her and now, two days later, she wanted him to wrap her in his arms and kiss her senseless. She wasn't mad at him right now, she was okay. She had no clue what she was doing here but she ducked inside his home and let out a deep sigh. She knew what was going to happen too: he was going to get her to talk. And talking wasn't something that she wanted to do.