Second Life

by Nodakskip

Xander and Cordelia find out that life after high school is not going to be easy sans the Hellmouth.

4. Chapter four

[A/N: Thanks to the Charmed Scripts Index, for some material used in this fanfic chapter that definitely does not belong to me] I am zipping through the entire first season of Charmed here so it jumps here and there.

San Francisco, California.

October, 1999

Kennedy the vampire Slayer looked around the bedroom, which was completely full of candles. A bit of soft music was coming through the CD player's speakers, too. She tossed her leather jacket over the far chair, and was about to take off her blouse...when the door opened.

"Oh, don't stop getting undressed on my account!" the new arrival called out.

The Slayer grinned wickedly at the sight of Cordelia Halliwell, in her small Japanese kimono robe. It was tight enough to stay on, but loose enough for Kennedy to tell that her companion had absolutely nothing on underneath. "What about the others?" she asked her fellow brunette.

"Oh, don't worry about them," Cordelia said as she came fully into the room, closing the door behind her. "They're all out for tonight. It's just you and me..." A happy smile appeared on her face. "However will we pass the time?"

"Well, I can sure think of something," Kennedy said, as she took the girl in her arms.

"Yeah, I just bet you can," Cordelia said demurely, as the Slayer laid her down on the bed. "We'll have to see just how long that Slayer endurance can last..."

"Trust me. A very long time," Kennedy said, as she eagerly pulled open the silk robe.

Halliwell Manor Kitchen.

Five minutes later

Piper looked up from the pile of mail she was looking through this morning, as Cordelia came in. "Taking a break?"

"Yeah. I can't believe some of the stuff in that book," the youngest Halliwell sister replied, as she sipped her coffee. "It almost makes me wish we'd had it back in Sunnydale."

"Almost?" Piper asked her sibling. "Wouldn't one book have been better than the huge piles of them you said you guys had to look through, back then?"

"Yeah," Cordelia replied absently. "But if it'd been back there, then the only way I would have ever seen it would be to pry it from Willow's hands with a crowbar." Her face took on an amused look. "Now that I think of it, that mighta been fun..."

By the tone of her sister's voice Piper guessed, "Xander's still not telling you what those two said to him, I take it?"

Cordelia shook her head. "No, the big dummy thinks I'll call the Hellmouth at once and really bitch at them for it-"

"Which in fact you would," Piper pointed out.

"Well, of course I would!" Cordelia exclaimed. "No one gets to yell at Xander like that, except me!"

With a small laugh, Piper asked, "Where's Kennedy? Still sleeping?"

Cordelia nodded. "Yeah, she's conked out upstairs. I don't know how she thinks she can cover a city this size, with just a single patrol! But judging by the look she had on her face when I checked in on her, she was having one hell of a pleasant dream..."

The two then walked out into the sitting room, where Piper had left the guy called Leo Wyatt - who was now friend and colleague to their house mate, Xander Harris. "See anything?" Piper asked Leo, as the handyman had half his body in the fireplace.

"Uh...well, I think I see...yep. There's definitely something here!" the man's voice called from inside the fireplace.

"Definitely," Piper said to herself, as she stared at his backside.

Cordelia also noticed the sight. "Oh my, Santa, you've changed..."

"He's looking for Kit," Piper told her.

"The cat. Right. Four legs and fur. I remember," Cordelia said, before mouthing to Piper, "Oh my God!"

Leo extracted himself from the fireplace, oblivious to the topic of the ladies' conversation. "Sorry. You know, have you tried the shelter?"

"Yeah," Piper said with a shrug. "Nothing."

"Well," Leo said, wiping his hands on a rag. "She had her collar on, right? With your number on it and everything?"

"A very distinctive collar, actually," Cordelia pointed out.

"Anyway," Piper told him. "Uh, thanks for looking. I'm sure you must be hungry after all that work."

"All what work?" Leo asked in apparent confusion.

Cordelia laughed a tiny bit, as she put her arm around her sister. "Oh, that's just Piper. She's gotta be everyone's mom. Think of her as your mom. I know I do."

Piper pushed off Cordelia's arm. "Isn't she a scream?" she asked with an annoyed look.

In that typically male way, Leo still seemed oblivious to what was really going on. "Well, thanks, um...let me go put up these flyers first, and I'll be right back, okay?"

"That would be great, thanks," Piper said, as Leo picked up the large stack of flyers and made for the front door. Cordelia and Piper watched him leave, or rather watched his ass.

"Oh. Quite possibly the finest butt in the city," Cordelia commented.

"In the state," Piper corrected.

"Maybe in all the land," Cordelia amended.

Piper cast a glance towards her. "I saw him first!"

"Uh-uh!" Cordelia protested.

"Uh-huh," Piper challenged. "And besides, he is much too old for you!"

"He is not! So what if I'm only 18? You know, I happen to prefer older men..." Cordelia snorted.

"Forget it!" Piper persisted. "That would be like if...if...if I went after Xander. How would you like them apples?"

"Ughhh, how many times do I have to repeat myself?" Cordelia called out in exasperation. "Xander is not my boyfriend! I don't think of him like that anymore-"

"Sure, sweetie," Piper said, amused. "You really expect me to believe you, though? I mean, after how you dragged Kennedy along to spy on Xander and that girl he went out with last week..."

"Hey, she was a succubus!" Cordelia flared.

"Which you didn't know, until after you busted in on them!" Piper pointed out. "Maybe I should tell Xander that part of it?"

"Tell me what part of it?" Xander asked, as he walked into the room covered in grime and dirt.

"Never mind!" Cordy snapped, glaring at Piper. She then stared at the young man, "And what the heck happened to you?"

Xander stared at his former classmate. "Leo was checking the downstairs part of the fireplace, while I was on the roof checking the upstairs part. Not fun, I can promise you. So, uh, where is my boss, anyway?"

"He just walked out the front door with the flyers for Kit," Piper said, turning away.

Xander shrugged, and quickly went out in search of Leo. He saw the whitelighter on the street outside the manor and yelled, "Yo, man, wait up!"

The so-called handyman halted and turned around, as his protégé caught up with him. "Any luck?"

Xander shook his head. "Nada. So, what's the plan?"

Suddenly Leo looked up, as he heard a jingling sound from his Elders. Xander saw the look and groaned, "Oh no, not AGAIN?"

The guardian angel looked apologetic and said, "I'm afraid so. Here, you take the flyers and get started - I'll join you as soon as I can." So saying, he dumped the papers into Xander's arms. And quickly vanished in a swirl of white lights, as soon as he made sure there was no one on the street looking.

"Great," Harris grumbled to himself. "He gets to travel around the world, while I get stuck with the grunt work..."

Xander had stumbled onto Leo's secret early on into the apprenticeship. It was just one of those things; the whitelighter had had to instantly orb out to save one of his charges, and the former Sunnydalian had seen him do it. Leo had tried erasing his memory of the event afterwards, with his whitelighter dust...

But for some reason, like with the time-freeze thingy, the stuff just didn't work on the so-called Zeppo.

So with no other choice, Leo had sat down and explained the situation to his friend. And once Harris got over the shock that he was working for a real-life angel - which, given everything else that he had encountered in his relatively short life, hadn't really taken long at all - he decided to help cover for the whitelighter, whenever the girls asked awkward questions.

Xander walked off, and started posting flyers for the missing witch familiar around the neighborhood. He grumbled to himself, "Kit, if you found yourself some mangy tom cat and you're having the time of your nine lives somewhere, I swear you'll regret this..."

UC Sunnydale, Sunnydale, California.

November, 1999

Riley Finn walked through the empty hall. Most of the students of Stevenson Hall were at a rave party, that was happening on the ground floor of the building. The only people in the dorm rooms right now were the ones already totally drunk; or the couples heading up to their residences to get laid, while their roommates were elsewhere.

He wasn't supposed to meet with Buffy for another hour, but the demon Professor Walsh sent them out to capture had turned out to be an easy grab. (So what the hell, soldier, enjoy your downtime. And at least this beats searching for Hostile 17...)

As he was passing the floor's lounge area, the sound of a vending machine caught his attention. He then stopped, when the soldier saw the room's only occupants in a window's reflection. (Wait a minute...)

The so-called TA only heard a few words, but it was enough to keep him out of sight. Because as far as Riley was concerned, any info he could overhear that would make the Scooby Gang's assimilation to the ranks of the Initiative go faster, could only help.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," he listened to the girl called Willow Rosenberg say.

"I know it's a lot of info to take in about Cordelia, but-" Buffy started.

"No, not that!" Willow told her. "Well, okay, that sucks too, but I mean the soda machine!"

"What about it?" the Buffster asked in confusion. "Two bucks for a can of Coke is a bit steep, I know, but it's like that all over campus. So-"

"No, I mean - don't you remember the vending machine back in high school?" Willow asked her. "I'm just not used to one that, that gives you the exact same item that you actually ask for. It was like playing Russian roulette with the other one!"

"Ah," Buffy said with a smile. "Feeling nostalgic for the good old days?"

"A little," Willow sighed, as she sat next to her best friend on the couch. "I don't know, Buffy - look at us. It's just you, Oz and me now. It's like, like, the entire Scooby gang's broken up! Disintegrated! It's like we've lost our Shaggy, or like - Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd without Daffy Duck, MASH without Klinger-"

"True, but let's keep in mind we weren't going to have Xander as part of the Slayage anymore anyway," the blond reminded her.

"But we didn't want Xander to leave town either, right!? Oh, it is so like him to have taken all that the wrong way," Willow said, worried and annoyed. "We didn't say we were trying to kick him out of our lives, just that we'd be busy with college and slaying vamps. But we would have made time for him!"

"I know. And heck, he could have hung out with Giles," Buffy mused. "He seems to be kind of out of it, being jobless and all these days. Watcher man needs to get a pet, or a hobby, or a girlfriend. Actually, he needs all three!"

Willow inquired, "Did Giles give you any info about Xander at all?"

"No, not much," Buffy told her with a sigh. "He wouldn't tell me everything, because Xander made him promise not to. But hey, they de-ratted Amy, which I guess is of the good. I think she went off to find her dad or something though, wherever he moved to..."

"Well, I would have been able to do it eventually!" Willow pouted.

"Still irked about that, huh?" Buffy asked her with a slight smirk.

"Oh, I'm irked. In fact, I'm big on the irking!" the redhead said vehemently. "It's like Cordelia - she, she's slowly taking everything I had. First I was a Slayerette, then she joins the club. I had a crush on Xander since forever, but one quick flash of her cleavage - and off he goes with her, into the broom closet! But the real topper is that here I am, wanting to go all out for the cause - staying on the Hellmouth after college offers from all over the world, to be the best witch I can be. And then? A few months later, Cordelia is suddenly a Charmed One!" she shook her head. "I'm just waiting for the news that she's converted to Judaism..."

"Just a little jealous, are we?" the Chosen One laughed.

"You don't get it, Buffy," Willow said with conviction. "We've been saving the world for years now; but whenever I talk to anyone that I've found practices the craft, all they ever say is, 'did you hear the rumors that the Charmed Ones have finally come together?'"

The redhead snorted and threw her hands up in the air, because of the absurdity of it all. "And Xander won't even talk to us to let us know what's going on in San Francisco! All Giles ever says is something like, 'oh, Xander informed me that they vanquished a dream demon the other day. I-I-I suppose we should be on the lookout for those too'. Come on!"

Ms. Rosenberg looked at her friend sadly. "Heck, I wouldn't even have that picture of Xander at the Golden Gate Bridge, if I hadn't secretly scanned the one he sent to Giles."

"Ah," Buffy started to look thoughtful. "But hey, wasn't that a picture of Xander and Cordelia, at that bridge tourist spot?"

Willow grinned. "You're talking to someone who coulda been the next Bill Gates here, Buff. Just a few snips here, a crop there and ding, instant bitch remover!"

"Oh, for - remember, Willow, that's the reason right there Xander got so pissed off at my mom's house, back then!" the Slayer pointed out.

"Well, how else am I supposed to think of her, Buffy?" Willow demanded. "I mean, okay, sure we got along there for a while - after she learned what really happens on the Hellmouth, anyway. But I just don't see how Xander can possibly stand to be around her, after the way she made his life hell because of that rebar incident! Honestly, how can Xander handle someone putting him down like that all the time? And making him feel useless or whatever?"

The red-haired Wiccan suddenly looked like she'd had an unpleasant epiphany, and she leaned into Buffy slowly. "There is one reason though, isn't there? You, you don't think they're doing it, do you?"

Buffy shook her head at once. "Nah, no way. I mean, he-he would have told one of us about it if he had slept with her, right?" the blond dismissed the possibility. "Just give it time, Willow. I figure Xander'll be back here before too long. I mean, we are his best friends after all! What can he possibly get from Cordelia, that he couldn't get from us?"

"Knowing Xander? Sex," Willow answered, with a funny expression. "Knowing Cordelia? Excellent blow-"

"Willow!" Buffy screeched, horrified at the sudden visuals.

Riley sunk back into the stairwell. Once he was out of the sight of the duo and out of Stevenson Hall, he pulled out his cell phone. "This is Agent Finn. Put me through to Research."

He waited about ten seconds for the connection. "Hey Craig, it's Riley. Yeah man, I'm good. I just need you to track down some info for me. The names Cordelia Doe, female and Xander Doe, male, I think his last name starts with an H, but I'm not sure."

Finn listened for a moment, "Yeah, I think they went to high school with Summers and Rosenberg. Try looking in San Francisco. Oh, and this last thing might be a bit harder. Something called a Charmed One, it's what they called that Cordelia chick-"

"Riley!"

The Iowan turned around, when he heard his name called, and saw Buffy and Willow come out of the building. "Okay then Craig, I hope you have fun with that. Later," he said into the phone, when the two women came within earshot.

"Hey!" Buffy said happily, as she gave her boyfriend a quick kiss. "Planning a kegger?" she then asked, as he clipped the phone back to his belt.

"No, a friend of mine has to write a five-page report for senior English by Friday. Needed some pointers."

"That's another thing I miss, Buffy," Willow complained, as the trio started to walk. "Having him come to me, needing help with his homework!"

"Who's him?" Riley asked innocently.

"Oh, just a high school friend of ours named Xander Harris," Buffy told him. Then she turned around, "Don't worry, Willow. I'll betcha by now Xander and Cordelia are getting to the point of being ready to kill each other-"

San Francisco, California.

The same time

"I am so going to kill you for this, Xander Harris!"

"What's that, Cordy?" the man in question shouted, amused. "No, never mind! You wanted to go first, right?"

A panicked look came over her. "Don't you even joke about that, mister!" she shrieked. "I still don't know how the hell you ever talked me into this!"

The young carpenter was close enough to grab ahold of her shoulders, to stop her slight shaking. "You got nothing to be afraid of, Cor. Just ask Bob here."

She looked back to the older man she was attached to. (As if I'm gonna trust him!)

"He's right, you have nothing to worry about!" the man told her over the noise.

The Charmed One looked unconvinced, and sent one last death glare to Xander. "If I die, I am soo going to kill you for this, you dorkhead!"

"Okay, it's time!" the man Xander was attached to called out, as a green light came on next to the open door.

Xander gave Cordy a reassuring smile, as she quickly made the sign of the cross over herself. Ms. Halliwell then looked back, and nodded to the man she was connected to.

Xander just wished he could have heard the swear words Cordelia screamed, but as the former class clown and his partner jumped out of the plane at 15,000 feet, he started swearing enough on his own.

Several minutes later, Xander and his instructor landed about ten feet from the target area. As he separated himself and went over to check on Cordelia, he could tell her mood had changed drastically.

"That was fantastic, Xander!" Ms. Halliwell yelled, as she grabbed him into a big hug.

"So, you're not going to kill me after all?" he asked teasingly.

"Oh yeah, God, that was fantastic!" she gushed, ignoring his question. "I can't wait to see the tape!"

"So, then, I take it you didn't squeeze your eyes shut the entire time?" Xander asked, as he removed his headgear.

"Nope, she kept them open all the way down, I think," Bob said as he came up.

"It was just such a rush, Xander!" Cordelia said, still excited. "I mean, it was even better than sex!"

Bob just laughed at that. "Not the first time I've heard that line. Come on, it'll only take a minute for them to transfer your videos to VHS."

As they walked back to the tent on the airfield, Cordelia came down enough from her adrenaline high to see a puzzled expression on Xander's face. "Something wrong?" she asked him.

"Oh no, nothing. And I, uh, guess it's really not my place to ask anymore-" the black-haired male teenager said, before his ex stopped him.

"Your place to ask what?" Cordelia demanded.

"Well..." he trailed off.

"Out with it, Xander!" she ordered imperiously, a trace of the old Cordelia Chase manifesting itself.

"It's just-" he started hesitantly. "Back there you just said it was better than sex, but unless you had a more interesting month last summer than you told me, then-"

Cordy just waved him off. "Drop that line of thought right now, you pervert!" she told him with a grin. "It's just an expression. Now if I had said it was better than chocolate, then you woulda had a right to be worried!" She pulled him after Bob, "Now come on, I want to see your lame ass screaming on video."

"Hey, I don't scream!" he protested. Then Xander amended sheepishly, "It's more of a manly shriek..."

Apartment B, 523 Oak Park Street, Sunnydale.

Later that evening

Giles paced his home, with the cordless phone in his hand. "Yes, I understand that it's four in the morning there, and I am sorry to be calling at such an ungodly hour. But I do need to locate your employer, at once."

The former Watcher stopped, as he heard the reply from the other end. "Antarctica? Well, then...would you happen to know when he's planning on coming back, from his so-called vacation?"

Halliwell Manor solarium, San Francisco, California.

The next day

Cordelia sat by herself on the whicker loveseat. Her legs were pulled up close to her chest, as she stared blankly at the picture in her hand. She had been doing nothing else, for the last twenty minutes.

"Hey there, little sis. Whatcha doing?"

Cordelia looked up at the sound of Piper's voice, to see her two older sisters come in the room slowly. Piper sat next to her, while Prue sat in the chair. "Something wrong with that picture?"

"No," Cordy said quietly, as she handed it over to her sibling.

"You and Xander went to a high school Prom, huh?" the middle sister asked teasingly, after she took a look and passed it on to Prue.

"Two of them, although we weren't together anymore for Senior Prom," Cordelia answered. "The one in that picture was about in the middle of our dating period."

"What happened to his arm?" Prue asked, not knowing about the vampire attack in the SHS library during the May of 1998.

"Oh, just the norm for Sunnydale. A bunch of vamps attacked us during a research session; one of 'em snapped his arm while they were fighting," Cordelia told them.

"Ouch. Okay, 'fess up. Why are you looking at this so intently now?" Piper wondered.

Cordelia let out a big sigh, before she leaned against the back of the loveseat. She mulled it over in her head for a few moments before the female teenager spoke again, "Look, I'm still new to this whole sisters-sharing-everything deal. So if I tell you guys something, something big, do we pinky-swear not to tell it to anyone else or what?"

"Did something happen between you and Xander, before he left today to work on that site with Leo?" Prue asked her in sudden concern.

"No, something happened after we went skydiving yesterday." Cordelia looked at each of them before saying, "I've got to tell someone about this, or else I swear I'm going to go nuts. But before I say anything...Xander can never, and I mean never know this, okay? Ever."

At both older sisters' nods, Cordelia asked, "You swear on your powers?"

"We swear already," Prue said in mild exasperation. "Whatever you tell us, Xander will never hear."

"Okay then," Cordy said. "How much have I told you about the breakup of Xander and me, during our senior year?"

"Just that you caught him making out with another girl, and you got hurt by a crowbar or something while running away," Piper said at once, as she vaguely recalled the past conversation.

"Right. Well, long story short, I made his life a living hell after we broke up," Cordelia told them with blunt honesty. "There were football players asking me if I wanted them to beat him up, after he cheated on me. And if it had just been the Willow fluke, I would have told them to go nuts, but-"

"But what, sweetie?" Piper asked.

Cordelia reached over, and took the photo from the table. She looked at it as she said, "The thing that Xander can never know is that...I cheated on him first."

"You're kidding me, right?!" Prue said, shocked. "How could you? You told us that it was hell for you, after you two broke up-"

"It was," Cordelia said honestly.

"Yeah, but how could it have been if you cheated on him first?" the oldest of the three asked again, confused.

"It wasn't - it wasn't something I'd planned to happen," Cordelia said with a dead, hollow voice. "Before the Chase family self-destructed, see, we always spent the summer out of the country. After junior year, we spent it at the Las Palmas resort in Mexico. Oh, it was so wonderful there," Cordy told her sisters with a brief smile. "Well, at least for the first two weeks anyway..."

Flashback

Las Palmas Resort, Mexico.

Friday, June 12th 1998

Cordelia Chase was doing something she never did back in Sunnydale. She was getting drunk.

This was the second time she had decided to drink alcohol, ever since she'd come to this place with her adopted parents. She hardly ever drank, but after what had happened the previous night - she just wanted to get plastered.

For Ms. Chase had cheated on her boyfriend. (I cheated on Xander!!) a mocking voice screamed in her head.

True, it wasn't entirely her fault, at least not as far as she remembered. But that didn't take the anger she felt towards herself away. The booze was starting to, though.

Cordelia had been stupid enough to drink at a party the night before. She had been hanging out with the other kids of the rich and pretty; and all of them were mostly brain-dead. Perfect clones of Harmony Kendall, at least on the inside - where it mattered.

Cordy hadn't paid much attention to the way that guy Ted had been hitting on her the entire day. Because hell, boys always hit on her; it was just part of her everyday life.

The brunette cheerleader still had that bitter taste of bile in her mouth though, when she thought about where she had woken up the next morning. In Ted's bed, buck ass naked! She had lost her virginity to an idiot she barely even knew, and not to the guy who she had been dating for almost the entire previous school year.

Cordelia groaned again at the thought that most of her boyfriends lasted only a month or so. (I knew I should have had sex with Xander, back when mom and dad were out of town last April!)

Well, the young woman knew she couldn't accuse Ted of rape. From what she remembered, Ted had been just as wasted as she'd been. And the guy's first reaction to finding out they had slept together was to grin at her and simply utter the word, "Cool."

Exactly what every girl wants to hear after giving it up while drunk, to be sure.

After Cordy had gotten over the revolting part of it, she had ordered him to keep silent about it if he didn't want her to castrate him. But knowing guys as well as she did, Ms. Chase didn't think for a minute that he would.

She had seen him later in the day taking a picture of her with some kind of camera phone; he wasn't exactly good at hiding it. And her blood had boiled when his older sister had told her Ted was chatting on AOL, telling some story about scoring with a southern California surfie chick to his friends back home.

Thank God the moron lived in Texas; if it had been Sunnydale, the rumors would have been all over town before she could have ever even talked about it to Xander.

So the young woman had kicked him in the balls, and decided to get drunk. Cordelia had then thought the vacation couldn't possibly get any worse; but then, she had to overhear her parents talking in their room.

"What do you mean, our daughter had sex with him?" her father asked her mother, shocked.

The woman that had paid other people to raise her child said simply, "You didn't see how drunk they were all getting at that party, dear."

His next question about any possible STD's was waved off as well. "Oh please, Jules," his wife said. "Do you really think the son of the richest family in Dallas would have a case of mono or herpes?! And don't worry, Cordelia's on the pill. A mother knows. That's why I let it happen."

"You let it happen?!" Mr. Chase asked, stunned. "How could you do that?"

"It wasn't that hard a call to make, dear," Catherine Chase said simply. "After all, that boy has a future, and what do you think that idiot Xander back in Sunnydale has? And besides, you did say you wanted to make a connection with their family, didn't you?"

"Yes, but not like this!" the man told his significant other. "She's our daughter, and to just...just give her to a-"

"A what?" his wife challenged. "A rich and socially acceptable young man, who's the captain of his private school's rowing team? And a shoo-in for Harvard?" She looked at him sternly. "Honey, I heard he's in place for a position in the Skulls, when he goes there. The Skulls and Bones, think of it! And if Cordelia is there with him, think of the opportunities she'll have as well. Then weigh all that up against a life as a barefoot pregnant woman making dinner for that idiot Harris, after he comes home from working at an auto repair shop all day!" she just shrugged.

Jules Chase still looked very conflicted, but slowly nodded. "I see what you mean..."

"Of course you do. After all, a mother and father have to look out for their baby girl!"

End Flashback

"Wow," was all Prue could say in shock and horror.

"Your mother went that far to make sure you dumped Xander?" Piper asked, dumbfounded. "I couldn't even imagine doing that to my kid..."

"I know," Cordelia said sadly, as she pulled her knees up to her chin again. "Piper, the thing is she always tried to set me up with the richest asshole she could find. I really don't think it would have mattered, if the guy had turned out to be a wife-beater or whatever. Just as long as he was rich."

"But you guys were already rich in your right," Prue said in confusion. "Why would she worry about that at all?"

"I can't be sure, but I think this was when they started to get wind of the IRS thing," Cordelia told her. "If I was married off to some rich guy, and never mind that I was only 17 years old then, they could have mooched off me and Ted or whoever. Makes sense, anyway."

"But still, to whore your own daughter that way?" Piper said, sickened.

Cordelia closed her eyes at the word 'whore'. "That's what I felt like, at least a bit. My mom tried to push the two of us together so hard, for the rest of the vacation..."

She looked at their still-unbelieving faces. "I know it's very hard to believe that she did that to me. But she did. The hard part was I had to keep it bottled up for a very long time. Just the feelings about it kind of messed up the reunion I had with Xander, at the start of senior year. It took us a while, before we got back to pawing each other in public."

Piper looked at her, dismayed. "You mean to tell us, that this is the first time you told anyone about this?!"

"Well, who could I have told?" Cordelia challenged her. "Harmony and the other sheep would have had a field day with that crap. Buffy and Willow? Hell no, they would have convinced Xander to dump me at once..."

She paused for a moment. "After a while, I just took to the guy like a lifeline. I don't think there was a day that passed, that we didn't make out at least once. After the thing with that rebar...if I hadn't fallen through that floor, I might have talked to him when he came with flowers to see me afterwards. But what the hell, it was only after I found out that he'd never screwed Willow that we really started talking again!"

"Maybe you should tell him now?" Prue suggested.

"Oh no, no way in hell!" Cordy stated. Her sisters watched as she became even more emotional, "I have Xander back now. He's my best friend these days, and I can't...I won't do anything to jeopardize that. I need him too much." She then spoke softly, "He's the only thing from my former life that I still want to hold onto."

Five weeks later

"Leo!"

Xander called the name out again for the third time, before the whitelighter appeared in all his effulgent glory within the sitting room. "At last! Where were ya, boss? Togo? Uzbekistan? Some place a little less tourist-y?"

"Madrid, actually," the older male said, as he looked around to make sure no one else had seen his entrance. But quickly Mr. Wyatt got more interested in the destruction of some of the room, and the demonic figure tied to the kitchen chair in the center of the sitting room.

"Xander!" he said, slightly shocked. "What the hell happened here?"

The teenager pointed one of his zat guns at the demon tied to the chair. "Tall, dark and scaly over here decided to drop in for a visit. And I was just falling asleep, when I saw its reflection in the TV screen..."

"You're hurt," Leo told him, as he moved to examine Xander's right shoulder that was covered in dried blood.

The former butt-monkey of the Scooby gang waved that off. "I'll be fine. It's what this guy told me, that we have to worry about!"

Leo looked at him, and then the unconscious demon in confusion. "Xander, if I'm not mistaken - that's a Rator demon. How could you have captured it, let alone interrogated it, before it teleported out?"

Xander pointed to the floor, and only then did Leo notice it. A line of salt went all around the demon in a circle. The whitelighter guessed that the burn marks on the demon's face and upper body had also been inflicted by salt.

"How did you know how to do this?" the guardian angel demanded. "Xander, the fact that Rator demons can't handle salt is not exactly well known-"

Xander just tilted his head. "For three years I read and reread a whole bunch of Giles' books looking for one thing or another, pal. You read something over and over enough times, and some of it sticks. Point is after I used some salt to 'persuade' it to talk, our boy here told me a real wonderful story."

"I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"No you're not," Xander told him. "Bottom line, some government military programme out of Sunnydale sent it to capture our three girls."

"What the hell for?" Leo demanded, not liking the implications at all.

"Some sort of experiments," Xander said, screwing his face up in disgust. "It didn't sound pleasant at all. Better go find out what your bosses have to say about this, and see if there's something we can do to put a lid on it. Since this one won't be reporting back to Sunnydale HQ, my guess is that they won't hesitate to send another one to try again."

Leo was about to vanish upwards, but then stopped. "Xander," he said slowly. "The burn marks on its face and body. How exactly did you get it to talk?"

The teen sent him a cold stare. "You're an angel. You really don't want to know."

"Xander..." Leo pressed.

But the boy just shook his head. "Maybe someday I'll tell you. But not today. Deal with it, boss man."

Harris watched the whitelighter then disappear in an array of white lights, before he pressed the stud that caused the zat ni'katel weapon to spring into firing position. "Time for you to die. 'Cause you don't come into my house and try to kidnap my friends, asshole!"

With those words, he fired twice at the demon. Xander then went to put the zat gun back in its hiding place, but stopped as he turned back to the empty spot with a sour look. "Ah, damn it! Now I have to buy the girls a new chair. And I don't even know where they bought that set!" he just sighed. "Okay, note to self. Don't vaporize the furniture next time..."

An hour and a half later, the three Charmed Ones backed Prue's car into the driveway. "God!" Cordelia muttered as they got out. "That movie completely and utterly sucked!"

"Hey," Prue told her sister. "You picked it out!"

"Well, yeah, but I expected it to at least have-" Cordelia trailed off, as they came around the front to the door.

"What is it?" Piper asked.

Cordy pointed to the street. "Xander's car is gone. I thought he was just going to stay in tonight?"

Prue just shrugged. "He said earlier that he was going to get some groceries. It's his turn to go shopping this week, after all."

"Damn it," Cordelia swore. "He better get me my cereal!"

"Don't you mean his cereal?" Piper asked cynically, as she turned the key. "Just because you always eat his food-" she trailed off, as she was the first one in the door. "What in the world-?!"

"What?" Prue and Cordelia both demanded, as they came charging in.

The foyer was covered in debris. From the looks of it, something had crashed through the glass doors to the sitting room.

"What the hell happened in here?" Cordelia shouted, as she saw the rips in the couch's padding and the smashed coffee table.

"Eww!" Prue said, as she held up a cushion from the floor covered in green slime.

"Prue! Cordelia!" Piper yelled from the dinning room.

The two sisters came running in "What is it?" Prue asked hurriedly.

"Oh my God!" Cordelia cried, as she covered her mouth. Piper was holding up one of Xander's Hawaiian shirts. The one he had been wearing that night, and its shoulder had a large rip and red bloodstain on it.

"Xander!" she called out, panicked. "Xander!?"

Prue tried to calm her sister. "It's okay, Cordy, I'm sure he's fine-"

"We don't know that for sure!" the youngest of the trio declared aggressively.

"His car is gone," Piper pointed out. "Maybe he drove himself to the hospital?"

She pulled out her cell phone, and hit Xander's number on speed dial. All three looked around, as a tune that sounded like the Imperial March from 'Star Wars' went off in the sitting room.

Cordelia followed it, and bent down to pull out her best friend's cell phone from under the couch. "You stupid dweeb! All of the times to forget your damn phone!" she raged in disbelief.

Emergency waiting room, Rose Heart Hospital, San Francisco.

Twenty minutes later

The three Halliwell sisters burst into the room, causing more than a few heads to look up. "Do you see him anywhere?" Cordelia asked, as she scanned the large waiting room.

Prue went to the registration window and was about to ask questions, when the woman just handed her a form with a bored look on her face. "Please fill this out and make sure-"

"We're not hurt. Has an 18-year-old guy come in here within the last three hours? He's about 5'11, dark hair with an injury to his shoulder-"

The woman just shook her head. "I wouldn't know, sorry. I just came on shift twenty minutes ago."

Piper grabbed her from behind. "Hey, look!"

The two other sisters looked and saw Xander coming out of one of the exam rooms, talking to a doctor. They ran over, as the doc went back through the doors and nearly bowled the young man over.

"Xander!" Cordelia cried, relieved as she hugged him.

"Aggh!" Xander shouted, flinching in pain. "Not too tight there Cor, please."

"Sorry!" the witch said, as she let go. "But you had me worried, you doofus!"

He tossed her a smile. "You know you can't get rid of me that easily-"

"Knock it off, Harris!" Cordelia told him sternly. "I was honestly worried about your lame ass. And that's no laughing matter."

"Well, sorry," the boy told her, as the foursome went out the main doors.

"Wild guess, it was a demon?" Prue asked.

"Oh yeah," Xander told the three sisters, as they crossed the parking lot. "I'm just lucky I saw its reflection on the TV. Another second later, and there would be two of me here."

"Well, the manor looks like a WWF match took place," Piper commented.

"I know, don't worry - Leo and I will get started on the repairs, first thing in the morning. Uh, assuming the boss is in a good mood," Xander said hurriedly, covering for the whitelighter as always. "And if you're worried about the zat gun, don't be. I hid it in the secret compartment I made in the end table."

"You have one hidden in the sitting room nowadays?" Prue asked. "Since when?"

"A few nights ago," Harris answered her. "The bad guys seem to always attack downstairs, and call me dumb if you want - but it just doesn't pay, having to run upstairs to find one."

"How's your shoulder?" Cordelia asked, still worried. Her sisters smiled at her mother hen act, out of sight of the two teenagers.

"Eh, it'll be okay. The doc took a few X-rays and stuff, the demon didn't hit bone; it was just a clean stab from the thing's exoskeleton." He gave her a reassuring look, "Relax. Just give me a few days, and I'll be as good as new."

"What did you tell them happened?" Prue wanted to know.

"Well," Xander said, looking back at the hospital in amusement. "I told them I accidentally wandered into a lawn darts game gone horribly wrong..."

Initiative Records room, Sunnydale, California.

Two days later

Professor Maggie Walsh looked with outrage, at what she had walked in on. She had come in to pick up some empty T-5 forms, but instead she found her men going through her files.

"What is the meaning of this!?" the 40-year-old woman instantly demanded.

"We're just following our orders, Professor," Agent Graham Miller told her quickly.

Maggie went up to him, with a murderous look on her face. "Agent Miller, I am the senior officer in charge at this base. And at no time did I tell you to go through my private files!"

"Yes, you didn't," a voice said from the doorway. "But I did."

Walsh spun around in surprise. "Mr. Ward!" she said in shock. "I had no idea you were coming-"

The man in the expensive suit ordered the men back to work and told Walsh, "Walk with me, Maggie. And this is not a suggestion."

The blonde woman had no choice but to follow him, as they walked up to the railing of the large pit used for operations. (What are you up to, Mr. Director?)

"Maggie, I want to make at least one thing clear," the old man told her, as if reading her mind. "You are not a military officer, you're a civilian researcher. Do not assume you have rank other than what I've given you, for the duration of this project."

Knowing better than to get upset at her current employer she asked, "I don't understand what's going on, sir. If you'd care to enlighten me-?"

"You stepped over the line this time, Walsh, and you know it," Ward told her bluntly.

"Sir, I don't-"

"Save it, Maggie," Mr. Ward said coldly. "Now tell me if you will, what the mission objectives of this project are."

Still unsure of what had gotten him upset with her, Walsh stated the objectives from the mission statement. "To determine if the Hostile and Non-Hostile Sub-Terrestrials can be harnessed for military purposes, and secondarily to protect the citizens of this town from the hostiles - insofar as is compatible with the primary objective."

"Correct, Maggie, you get a gold star!" Ward said bitterly. "Now, will you please tell me what in God's name made you send a captured demon, to abduct civilians from San Francisco?" he demanded in no uncertain terms.

Walsh kept her face calm. "Sir, we had intelligence that they are very dangerous witches; and I felt they could be useful in the 314 project-"

The Director groaned. "That's always been your problem, Maggie. You automatically think anything supernatural has to be evil!"

"Sir?"

"I personally read the report filed by Agent Finn," Ward told her. "At no point did he say anything about them being dangerous, from what he overheard - other than one of his informants not liking one of the three sisters. And Maggie, don't think for a second that this is the only program that we have that deals with the paranormal."

"Mr. Ward-"

"Damn it, woman, but I got my ass chewed out by the Joint Chiefs for two hours straight yesterday, because you sent out a demon for an unauthorized kidnapping of American citizens, on American soil! And not only did it fail in its attack, but a civilian that fought your little Frankenstein had to be treated for injuries at a public hospital! We're just damn lucky he didn't bring the whole shebang out into the open on the six o'clock news, two nights ago!"

He gave her a harsh glare. "Now, would you like to tell me why the hell you went outside your engagement zone to attack what everyone tells me are supposed to be the biggest good witches alive!?"

"Sir, I didn't mean any-" she started but was cut off.

"Any what? Any harm? Maggie, this is strike one. And in this ball game, there's no strike three; if you cause another fuckup like this, you and the entire project will be terminated! Do you understand me?"

"Mr. Ward!" Walsh exclaimed. "There's no need for threats-"

"Well, pardon my bluntness - but I feel the need for just that, Professor," the white-haired man told her. "I'm confiscating your files. Every bit of info you have on those people in San Francisco is to be destroyed. There will be nothing for a Senate inquiry to find, is that clear? Paper and computer records, all of it. And trust me Maggie, if I find out you've so much as even researched the Charmed Ones again, then you will not like the consequences of your actions. Are we on the same page here?"

"Yes, sir," she responded sourly.

"Good!" The Director of the Initiative said, before he stalked off back to the Records room.

Walsh was fuming, when Dr. Angleman came up from the Pit. "You heard?" she asked with a snarl.

Dr. Angleman just nodded, as he watched the retreating form of Mr. Ward. "I guess we're going to have to put some of our plans on hold, then..."

"No," Walsh stated. "We can't risk dealing with the witches for now, granted; I will not risk jeopardizing Adam. But once he's operational, we can make up for lost time with those three, and to hell with that idiot's orders!"

Sunnydale Motor Lodge.

An hour later

Leo and Xander orbed into Room 121, to find a demon waiting for them. "You got all the files?" Xander asked.

"Sure thing, bud," the demon told them.

"Good work Benny," Leo told him, even though as a whitelighter he was not allowed to work with demons. Luckily, he had Xander to get around that particular rule though, to safeguard his charges...

"Oh please," the demon smiled, before it shape-shifted into a human being and the voice changed. "Call me Mr. Ward."

Xander was unimpressed as he picked up the files, "You're sure this is everything?"

"Oh yeah, it's every single thing they had," Benny told him, as he reverted to his true form again. "Trust me, those solider boys would have jumped off of a bridge if I'd told them to do it."

"What about Walsh?" Leo asked. "Did she buy it?"

"Yeah, she bought it alright," Benny said, as he quickly counted the money Xander handed him. "She was looking very pissed off, but struggling not to show it."

Leo was still a little nervous about the scam. "What if she checks on this, with her superiors in Washington?"

Xander shook his head. "No chance. What do you think she's going to do? Call up her boss and say, 'hey, remember the time you chewed my ass out on account of I screwed up?' She won't say another word, and just lay it on real thick whenever she talks to the guy from now on. It's either this way, or we go head to head with the government; and we can't afford the exposure here..."

San Francisco, California.

A few minutes later

Joyce Summers looked around in shock, when she opened up her eyes. A moment ago, she'd been in her bed in her two-storey house. Now she was in a closed and darkened restaurant.

"Don't be afraid here, Mrs. S."

She spun at the voice. "Xander!" she exclaimed, relieved. "Thank God, I almost had a heart attack. Where are we?"

"You're in San Fran," he told her simply.

"But that's impossible, Xander..." Joyce responded in disbelief. "I was just in my bed..."

"I know you were. It's a magic thing," Xander said, as he pulled out an envelope. "Look, this is very important; I need you to give this to Giles, and only Giles."

"I see; but, uh, why can't you just mail it to him?" the older woman asked, clearly confused. "Better yet, why don't you come visit in person? Buffy and Willow want to see you again, dear-"

"Because his mail, phone, and home may be bugged. And yours may be as well," Xander felt he had to ignore the rest for now.

"What? Xander, who on earth would be spying on us?"

"A not-so-friendly part of the government that's in Sunnydale," Xander said sourly. "Look, please, just give him that letter and make sure you don't tell anyone about it. Not even Buffy or Willow." He cut off her incoming question, "It's all explained in the letter. Just get it to him."

"I will, Xander," the middle-aged mom told him firmly. "I don't understand any of this, but if it's that important - I will."

"Thanks, Mrs. S," Xander said gratefully, before he took a step back. "Leo!"

Joyce had no time to ask before she was blinded by white lights, she felt light-headed and was suddenly back standing in her darkened bedroom, still clutching the letter.

San Francisco State University.

Two weeks later

Cordelia was walking to her car, after hanging out with a few friends at their dorm room in Mary Ward Hall. It was fun, just bonding over a few pints of ice cream and some rented DVD's.

The Charmed One enjoyed having real friends nowadays, that didn't seem to care what she wore or what her personal history was. She could just be herself around them. Letting her guard down was something Cordelia Chase could never do, but Cordelia Halliwell now had no trouble letting people in.

"Cordelia!"

The young witch whipped around in a defensive stance, ready for anything. It was still too light out for vampires. But she had long ago learnt that these days, demons no longer mostly attacked at night. Cordy then relaxed up slightly, as she saw a dark-haired girl around her own age come running up to her.

"Oh, there you are!" the other woman said, as she caught her breath. "I swear, this campus is much larger than a high school, and you do not have an assigned residence. So it took forever to find you!"

"Uh, do I know you?" Cordelia asked, wondering who this girl was.

"Oh, sorry," the girl said apologetically. "We meet briefly during the December of 1998. I'm Anya." At Cordelia's blank look she added, "I came when you wanted to curse your ex-boyfriend, Xander Harris. You know, the Wish thing? Vampire Willow? Any of this ringing any bells?" she added helpfully.

Cordelia brought her guard back up in an instant. "Right, you're the vengeance demon!"

"Former vengeance demon," Anya corrected, with a lingering trace of resentment. "Since I screwed up and let that librarian reverse the Wish..." She looked at the taller girl, wondering, "Uh, you're not still upset about you getting drained and killed by the alternate vampire versions of your former friends, are you?"

"What?" Cordelia asked, utterly confused.

"Never mind, nothing," Anya waved her fears off. "That's not why I'm here."

"Then why are you here?"

"You have my boyfriend," the former demon stated simply. "I would like him back, please."

"What?" Cordelia asked again with total incomprehension. "Your boyfriend? I thought you were a man-hating demon. Why would you have a boyfriend?"

"Well, granted, I didn't have one while I served D'hoffryn. But since I'm now stuck on this plane in this mortal body, I've found that I would like to have one," Miss Jenkins said with a shrug. "And unfortunately, you're currently in possession of the one I would like to have give me orgasms."

Cordelia just released a disgusted look at Anya's lack of tact; which in another life, would have been very hypocritical of her. "At present, lady, I do not have a boyfriend. So you're just going to have to get your orgasms somewhere else!"

Anya seemed confused. "Really? But the witch in Sunnydale said that you had him here."

"Who, him? And witch?" Cordelia asked. "You mean Willow?"

"Yes, that's her name," Anya confirmed. "She said that you had Xander Harris here, and were giving him many orgasms to make him want to stay with you instead of going back to the Hellmouth. A very sensible if worthless strategy for any man, in my opinion."

"Willow said what?!!" Cordelia fumed. "God damn it! Xander and I haven't even kissed, ever since we broke up!"

"Really?" Anya's face lit up. "Excellent! Then you won't mind if I assume possession of him. After all, I haven't been able to stop thinking of his pleasing and well-muscled shape. Had you not reclaimed him, I would have taken him to the Prom and Hotel room ritual last year."

Cordelia instantly saw red. "Hotel room? And possession! He's not a dog, lady!"

"Oh yes, I know that," Anya said, seemingly unfazed by Cordelia's growing anger. "Look, I am prepared to offer you a dowry for him, if there any leftover feelings that you claim ownership of his heart. Even though I'm not sure of the current standards nowadays; ah, my father gave Olaf several cows and sheep, back in the 9th century. Do you desire meat or dairy-producing cows?"

"Okay, freak, listen to me very carefully," Cordelia said firmly, as she leaned into Anya's face. "You are not taking Xander anywhere. For that matter, you will not see him, or attempt to contact him, in any way, shape or form; do you understand me?"

"You're trying to negotiate a better price. I can respect that," Anya concluded. "All right, I can also add on some land. I bought something called a timeshare-"

Cordelia cut her off, "There is no deal happening here, you sicko! Xander lives here now, and he's not going back to Sunnydale with you - period! Besides, and just for the record, you're not his type!"

"Wait, how is it possible that I'm not his type?" Anya asked in honest confusion. "I know the man, we spoke often before the Ascension thing. I have the necessary requisites; my breasts are of ample enough size for his tastes. From my experience with men, I am exactly his type-"

"You're not his type because he's a hero, Anya," Cordelia told her, going for the jugular. "Yeah, I remember all about you now. Xander doesn't have time for people who run and hide, when trouble's about to hit the fan. Wasn't the last time he saw you when you were sprinting out of town, before Graduation?"

When Anya still looked like she was going to protest, Cordelia added, "By the way, did Willow possibly tell you my full name?"

"She didn't have to," Anya answered. "You summoned me, remember? You're Cordelia Chase-"

Cordelia's usually beautiful face took on a very nasty look. "That's not my name anymore. I'm Cordelia Halliwell now. Does that last name ring any bells for you, demon?"

Now Anya was getting nervous. "A Charmed One?"

"That's right," Cordelia told her. "Now I want you to ask yourself, what do you think I should do with a self-confessed killer, that's currently hiding out in human form?"

"But, but it's not like that. Those people got what they deserved, and I'm just an ordinary human now," Anya said while backing up.

"Well, you see Anya, it's like this," Cordelia told her nastily. "Unlike Buffy, I don't have any problems with that part of it. Most of the demons that have invaded my home this last year - they've been awfully human-looking, one way or another. So, that wouldn't be a consideration for me."

Anya started backing away. "You can't stop me from seeing him, you know. I'm an American now. I know my rights! There's this thing called the Constitution, missy-"

"Then let me put it this way, Anya," Cordelia snarled out as she interrupted. "Across the street from where I live, is the San Francisco Slayer. Her name is Kennedy, and it's her duty to slay vampires and demons. She's also a lesbian, and according to Xander, she's desperately in love with me. So if I tell her who and what you are, what kind of odds would you give me that you'd last a week, no matter where you tried to hide?"

The former Anyanka broke out into a full-fledged run, after backing away a few feet. And as Cordelia watched the girl disappear she said to herself with a huge smile, "There was no part of that, that wasn't fun!"

Halliwell Manor.

A short time later

Cordelia came in via the back door, and plopped her backpack on the kitchen table. "Why hello, my wonderful older sister!"

Piper looked up at her from her the cake she was frosting. "My, aren't we chipper today?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" Cordelia asked merrily, as she grabbed some bottled water from the fridge. "I got an A minus on my U.S. history exam, hung out with the girls while bingeing on Ben and Jerry's, and best of all - I got to tell off a bitch!"

"And what bitch would that be?" Piper asked her, as she swatted Cordy's hand away from the frosting bowl.

"A girl from my high school days. Anya, or Anyanka as she was known for the last thousand years or so."

Piper frowned. "Anyanka? I've heard that name before-"

Cordelia nodded. "She's one of the vengeance demons listed in the Book of Shadows. She got off on giving cheating men horrible deaths. And hey, I can really understand the desire for a woman to wish a guy agonizing pain in the heat of the moment, but some of the things she did-"

"You went to high school with a freaking demon!?" Piper interrupted, shocked.

Cordelia just shrugged. "It's a long story, but she lost her powers before the end of senior year. And now, she's decided she wants Xander to give her lots and lots of orgasms!" She ignored her sister's weirded-out look, "Like I'm going to let a former demon that killed men for centuries, anywhere near the guy!"

"I honestly don't want to know," Piper said, holding up her hands in surrender. "On account of the fact that the words 'demons' and 'orgasms' should not be together in the same sentence!" She shook her head at Cordelia. "The package you've been waiting for came today, by the way."

Cordelia's smile got even wider. "Perfect, it's early!" She suddenly grew concerned. "Xander didn't see it come, did he?"

"No," Piper assured her, as she rinsed out the bowl in the sink. "He's at that seminar today, about the joys of woodworking."

"Thank God!" Cordy said, looking around. "Where is it?"

"Pantry," her sister informed her. "Now, are you going to tell me what it is yet? All you've told us so far is that it's Xander's birthday gift."

"Well, I found it on ebay," Cordelia shrugged, as she laid the poster-sized flat package on the table and slid a knife over the sealed front. "It's an art print, that I know he's been trying to find for years." She pulled out the framed and matted print, and held it up. "Well?"

"It's a ship?" Piper commented. "I mean it looks very life-like, but it's still a sinking ship."

"Not just any ship," Cordelia told her with a smile. "It's the Britannic."

"Don't you mean Titanic?" Piper asked with a frown.

"Nope, not at all," Cordelia said, the smile growing wider. "The Titanic sank at night during 1912; this one is the Titanic's sister ship, a hospital vessel that sunk on November 21st, 1916 during the day."

"Since when do you know so much about shipwrecks?" Piper asked her younger sister.

"Oh, I don't; it's just Xander was looking for one of these, even back when we were dating. I was going to get it for his birthday then, but I couldn't find one. But I did a lot of research on it," Cordelia said with a shrug.

"So, Xander's the shipwreck fan?"

"Kind of," Cordelia said. "He had a Titanic model kit in his room when he was growing up, but it was destroyed when his dad chucked it against the wall one time when he was drunk. I think he was around thirteen, at the time."

"Yikes," was all Piper could say.

"Yeah," Cordelia agreed. "But he wanted this one, because everyone knows about the Titanic. But not a lot of people know of her sister ship here, that sank a few years later." She added sadly, "He told me once he wanted it, because it reminded him of how everyone but himself forgot about Jesse McNally."

"Who?"

"First soldier down, in our little war against the vampires way back when."

San Francisco gymnasium.

A week later

"Is that them?" Emily asked her friend from behind the curtain.

Cordelia looked where she was pointing, and saw her sisters and Xander come into the auditorium. "Yep, that's them. Figures they would be running late. Piper's car probably broke down again!"

Emily gave Xander a once-over with an appreciative eye. "So, that's the guy you've had helping you practice?" she said to Cordy. "And you say his room is just down the hall from yours, huh?" she then asked very suggestively.

"Down, girl friend," Cordelia ordered her. "He's still on my reserve list."

"Reserve list?"

"It's just...that I've always had a boyfriend, for as long as I can remember," Cordy told her friend speculatively. "I just want to get to know the new me first, before I start going out on dates with guys. I want to figure out Cordelia Halliwell, before I work on Xander again."

A loud voice came from behind them. "Report in!" The girls quickly got in line with the other students, in front of their Tae Kwon Do teacher.

Twenty minutes later, Xander felt a tapping on his shoulder from the seat next to him. "There she is!" Piper said, pointing as the twelve students filed out onto the stage.

Sure enough, he spotted Cordelia in her white Tae Kwon Do uniform, third in line as they bowed to the instructor. Xander watched her athletic form in awe, (Wow. That white uniform really emphasizes her - no! Don't think that, bad Xander! Bad!)

"What exactly does she have to do again?" Prue asked him.

Xander counted off the steps with his fingers. "The five one steps, five combo kicks, the twenty step pattern and a board break."

"Board break!" Piper squealed. "She never practiced that at home!"

Xander agreed, "The instructor wanted them to only do the boards in class."

"I could never get all those moves down as fast as she did," Prue admitted.

Xander grinned. "Hey, she told me that next to cheerleading, memorizing twenty moves was nothing!"

Two hours later Cordelia was walking, no - almost skipping to her car with Xander and her siblings. After congratulatory hugs from the trio, they were planning on meeting Emily and some others from the class at a nearby pizza joint.

"This is just so wrong," the lone male said suddenly

"What's wrong about it, Xander?" the youngest sister asked, stopping with her hands on her hips. "The fact that your best friend can kick your ass now?"

"No, no, no," he said smirking. "Cordelia Halliwell wearing an orange belt. And it doesn't match her outfit! Oh, the horror - someone call the Fashion Police!"

"Ha, ha!" Cordy responded, rolling her eyes. "And make no mistake, I can kick your ass you know. Even more than I could before, you geek!"

"You may be wise in the ways of the feet now, Cordelia Halliwell," Xander told her, assuming the mien of a Kung Fu master. "But there is one martial art that I will always be able to best you in."

Shaking her head at him, Cordy asked, "And what art would that be, Mr. Lame-" She stopped dead, when she saw him coming at her. "Xander, I'm warning you! NO!"

"Oh, yes!" the once and former Soldier Guy said evilly, before he started to tickle her mercilessly. Piper and Prue just shook their heads, as Cordelia started screaming and laughing.

Halliwell Manor.

February, 2000

Cordelia left the attic while she was talking with Piper on the cordless phone, the middle sister at her restaurant called Quake located at North Beach. "Yeah, he sounds like a real piece of work. He has a nice voice, though. What's he look like?"

#A complete and total jerk,# Piper responded sourly. #Is Leo still around?#

"Yeah," Cordelia said as she came down the stairs. "He's working away. He wanted to know when you're gonna get back, though."

Piper groaned at something. #Ugh, I think it might be a while. Maybe I should talk to him?#

"Sure. Hold on a second," Cordelia told her as she went into the parlor, and was utterly shocked at the sight. "Oh my God!"

Leo was floating several feet off the ground, hovering over the chandelier and holding a glowing lightbulb. "Cordelia!" the whitelighter shouted in surprise as he saw her, right before the guy lost his concentration and fell to the floor. Hard.

"Lemme call you back!" Cordy quickly said into the phone, as she disconnected the line. Then she attempted to brandish it as a weapon between her and the angel. "Stay back Leo, or whatever your name really is!"

"Cordelia, wait. I can explain," the guy born during 1924 said quickly. He followed her as she backed up into the foyer, the lightbulb forgotten in his hand, still glowing.

"You're a warlock, aren't you?" Cordelia demanded.

"No," Leo quickly responded. "Wait, please. Think about it. If I was a warlock and I wanted to hurt you, don't you think I would have done it the last time I was here?"

"Okay. Good point," Cordelia conceded, but didn't let down her guard. "Still, most normal handymen use ladders to fix chandeliers. Are you a witch?"

"No."

"Then what are you?"

"Uh-" Leo stammered as he tried to think of something, not noticing that he was waving the still-glowing lightbulb in front of her. But when the whitelighter saw her eyes glued to it, he quickly shut it off and tried to laugh it off. "Would you believe, static electricity?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes, forgetting to be afraid. "You've been hanging out with Xander way too long, mister!"

A short time later Leo and Cordelia were sitting in the solarium, Cordy having retrieved the mug of tea she'd left there before she had gone up to the attic. "I mean up until today, I thought you were a handyman, and now I find out that you're a-"

"Whitelighter."

"And what exactly is a whitelighter?" the youngest Charmed One asked, confused.

"Well, we're really just messengers. Guides," Leo could see his charge was still confused. "Think of us as guardian angels for good witches." He noticed something, "Your tea must be cold." So he leaned forward and waved his hand, and the tea became hot again.

"Ow!" Cordelia exclaimed, as she pulled her hand away from the side of the now-hot mug. Looking at the steam coming off the tea, she mused, "Well, you are handy..." The 19-year-old girl thought for a moment. "So, all this time, you knew who we really were?"

"Yeah. I was sent to watch over you and your sisters, when you first got your powers. You know, help out wherever I could," he told her honestly.

"So, you working with Xander was just a cover?" Cordelia asked sadly, knowing how much her ex had liked working with his so-called carpentry boss. He had finished the apprenticeship by now, and Xander had his own small private business going - it was even called 'White Knight Carpentry', of all things.

"No, actually..." Leo said in response to the question, embarrassed. "I was sent to keep an eye on him as well."

"All right, fine. But why?" Cordy asked, growing concerned for her best friend. "Xander's not a witch, is he?"

"No. And as for why I was assigned to him, that's a...real gray area. Basically, I'm not one hundred percent sure; I was only told he was a...candidate. And for my money, it's for him eventually becoming a whitelighter, even though we're supposed to already know who our future peers are going to be..." He shook his head with a laugh. "Thing is though, he, uh - learned what I was, kinda fast. In fact, he's known almost since the day we met."

"Wait up," Cordelia said quickly. "Xander knew!? And he didn't tell me?!"

"Well, yeah, because I asked him not to," Leo answered with a smile. "He knew you'd be upset, but he understood that I was here to help protect you and your sisters. He's been a great asset, once I helped him get over his issues."

"Asset? And what kind of help has he given you?" Cordy didn't want to get into the 'issues' part right now.

"Remember back in January, you three had to give up your powers? Who do you think helped me get them back for you, with the Book of Shadows?"

"That was you?! And that darn book," Cordelia mused sourly. "Ever since we found out Xander can touch it, he's been studying it big-time."

"You can't really blame him for that," Leo told her. "I know for a fact his number one priority is protecting you and your sisters."

Cordelia tried to look annoyed, but she couldn't hide a smile at knowing that Xander was so gung-ho about keeping the three of them protected. "He can't do any of the stuff that's in there though, like the vanquishing spells and stuff."

"True. But knowledge is power," Leo reminded her.

"Yeah, I know that," Cordelia said, annoyed. "I've seen those NBC 'the more you know' adds." A stray thought struck her, "Wait, so if you're back now, does that mean you have to help us with something else?"

"Actually..." the angel started to say, "I'm here to help a boy named Max."

Cordelia's eyes went big. "Max? Wait. That's the...the..."

"That's the name from the spirit board. I know," Leo told her. "See, Max is a budding good witch, new to his powers. He's very young and vulnerable. And he's in serious trouble; someone wants to take advantage of his gift."

"So why don't you help him?" Cordelia wanted to know.

"I did. I made sure Prue received his cry for help. That's why I was sent here. That's all I'm supposed to do for now. The rest is up to Prue."

He said it as if it was simple, but Cordelia didn't think it was. "But Prue doesn't know anything about him. She doesn't even know that he's a little boy."

"Well, she will," Leo concluded. "In the meantime, you have to help me keep my secret - or I could get into big trouble. Piper and Prue can never know what I really am."

"Wait, uh, you have to tell Piper, because if I know her she's gonna think that-"

Leo cut her off, "I know. I know. And that's where I need your help. See?" He got out of the chair, and started to pace. "Whitelighters and witches aren't allowed to fall in love. It's like humans and angels - aren't. But I did. I fell in love with Piper."

"And I know how much she cares about you," Cordelia told him sadly.

Leo looked defeated. "It isn't fair to keep her in the dark...but I have to keep this secret. So somehow, I have to tell Piper that I can never see her again - and I can't tell her why."

"You don't need my help for that, Leo," Cordy said in her old tactless way. "You need a miracle!"

Apartment B, 523 Oak Park Street, Sunnydale, California.

3:10 a.m., that morning

Rupert Giles tossed and turned in his bed. He had half-woken up to go to the bathroom twenty minutes before, and was having a hard time finding a comfortable position. He was just starting to drift off, when the sound of a voice surprised the shit out of him.

"Really, Rupert, the Time Life series? You know this mass-produced crap is just utter drivel..."

Giles shot upright, and had his sword out in a flash. The elderly man just shook his head from the chair in the corner of the room. "You usually keep a sword next to your bed like that, old chap?"

"Smith!"

"Yes, Rupert," the man said casually. "You did want to talk to me, didn't you?"

"I've been trying to get ahold of you for months, you berk!" Giles yelled in aggravation, as he dropped the sword.

"Well, I've been busy," Smith told him, as he tossed a robe to the Englishman. "Put this on and we'll have a nice chat, shall we?"

Giles followed his 'friend' down the stairs, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "I'll just put on some tea, and then we can-"

"Oh, no need," Smith told him as he sat down on the couch. "I already picked some up. Cheers," the visitor drank from his store-bought mug.

Giles felt his across from him. "Bloody hell, it's still warm. Where on earth did you find a place that sells tea at this hour?"

"Oh, there's this great little place in New York City," Smith told him. "I found it about four years ago, and I've been going there for my morning tea ever since."

"You get your tea in New York, and yet you live in London?" Giles asked, surprised.

"Your point being?"

Giles let out a sigh, as he sat down. "I should have learned by now not to let anything about you surprise me."

Smith laughed a bit. "Now, don't say that around Martha. She says that I'm an open book to her."

"Well, most men are to their wives, you know," Giles responded, before he got down to business. "I assume you have the information I was looking for?"

Smith pulled out a folder. "You wanted to know any and all information on the Charmed Ones that is not in the general knowledge pool, correct?"

"Quite right," Giles said. "What can you tell me? Like for starters, how the Council knew that the Charmed Ones would be activated when they were?"

"Come now, Ripper," Smith said in a teasing tone. "You should have figured that out yourself, easily."

The ex-Watcher's voice grew dark. "Consider me stupid. One of those girls is someone I consider to be like one of my own children. And since Xander Harris is also there, I want to know everything beyond the obvious."

"It's simple, really," Smith told him. "Melinda Warren prophesised that her line would grow in power, culminating in the arrival of three sisters, the most powerful witches of all time; and they would be known as the Charmed Ones. So the Council started keeping an eye on her descendants, right for the get-go. After a few measly hundred years, Patty Halliwell had three baby girls that we know of. One of them was your so-called Cordelia."

"You're saying that it's just because Cordelia and her sisters are the first set of three sisters that the Warren family has ever had?" Giles asked his friend. "But how would the Watchers know to have a Slayer there, for when Cordelia went to meet her birth family?"

"One of the seers got lucky, old man, and foresaw young Miss Chase reading the spell to activate their powers," Smith said calmly, as he took another sip from his tea. "But there is one thing that surprised me about the Charmed Ones, to be honest."

"Something surprised you?" Giles asked, not liking that idea.

"Oh, it's nothing big mind you," Smith waved off his concerns. He pulled out a black and white 8x10 photo of a woman in a waitress uniform. "That's Patricia Halliwell, in late 1980. The Council was doing a random checkup on her, had been doing it ever since it came to their notice she'd had two baby girls."

"They were hoping for her to get pregnant again."

"Correct as always, Rupert," Smith said, as he pulled out two other photos. "A strange thing happened on that day, though. It seems that good old Patty was almost attacked by a police officer."

"What? Why would a police officer attack her?" asked a confused Giles.

"A better question is, how did her rescuer show up when she did?" Smith smirked, before he let Giles see one of the 20-year-old photographs.

The image displayed almost made the former librarian spit out his tea. "Cordelia!?"

"It wasn't just her, Rupert." Smith slid another picture over, and it also showed Cordelia Halliwell existing within an era she should not have been. This one also showed her two older sisters talking in a park, with two little dark-haired girls.

"Rupert, my point is this," Smith said as he leaned back in his seat. "It seems at some point, hell - maybe even today for all we know; the Charmed Ones have utilized time travel."

"My word!" Giles struggled out. "This, this is simply incredible! No one on the Council has ever been able to-" He was cut off by Smith's watch beeping.

"Oh, wonderful," the other man groaned. "I have to get back to help my dear wife decide what color she wants to paint our living room."

He got up and was going to pick up his jacket, but stopped. "Actually, Rupert, I might as well tell you the big deal with the Charmed Ones before I go. It'll save me some bother in the future."

"The big deal?" Giles asked, as he too stood up.

"You see, old chap," Smith said as he put on his jacket. "When magic resides within a family lineage, it doesn't just go away. It's been in the Warren line for hundreds of years now, and just because the Charmed Ones are finally active - that doesn't mean that the magic ends with them. I can't say where my prophecy originates, because no one knows for sure-"

"I knew there had to be a prophecy about them somewhere!" Giles told him jubilantly. "But I-I-I've never been able to find it, thanks to getting cut off from the Council."

"Well, whatever, the basic rundown is that now that the Charmed line - not the Warren line - has been activated...it doesn't have to be three sisters anymore."

"Brothers?" Giles asked in amazement.

"No. Although it could be, one day," Smith acknowledged "But some time in the future...cousins."

"You're telling me that at least two of the Charmed Ones will have children?!" Giles asked intrigued.

"Not two, all three of them," Smith told his 'friend', before he became very serious. "And you must swear to me that you will not share this information with anyone, old man. Especially not your friend Cordelia. There are some things no one should know, about their own future."

"Of course. You have my word on it," Giles responded.

Smith leaned on the couch, as he recited a line from memory. "Take heed thou Charmed Ones, for ye shall all be great with child. One maiden, and three male offspring shall spring from thy wombs; powerful cousins who will carry the Power to save the innocents."

He paused. "One girl and three boys," Smith said matter-of-factly. "There's also a mention that one of them could fall to the dark side of the Force, as it's commonly referred to these days; but as to which one of them it is, I can't say."

"How is it that this is not well known?" Giles asked in confusion. "The coming of the Charmed Ones has been legend for, uh, for a very long time. Countless studies have been done on the subject, so why is this little tidbit of information also not out there on the grapevine?"

"Oh, you have the Council to thank for that," Smith responded in a disgusted voice. "You know how they love to keep the Slayer under their control. Just imagine what would happen if they could gain control of the Charmed family line from the beginning, eh?"

Giles' horrified face let Smith knew he understood the implications of that much power under the Council's sway in future generations. "Not a pleasant thought. However, they weren't counting on two of your wayward Slayer's past helpers being in the Charmed family," the visitor smirked.

"In the family?" Giles asked, shocked. "Wait, a-are you saying that the child or children Cordelia will someday give birth to - they'll be fathered by Xander!?"

"No. Because quite honestly, I don't know who any of the fathers are going to be," Smith said shortly, not liking anything he didn't know. "This future mate of Cordelia's is named only as the 'Judged One'. And I have no idea - no one does - what that means." He added when Giles was about to ask, "Bloody hell, Rupert, the entire translation is now coming under intense investigation. There are no answers - only questions."

"If this prophecy is as old as it sounds," Giles said slowly, "surely it-it has been translated fully and correctly by now?"

"You'd think that, yes. But the reason it's coming under new scrutiny now," Smith told him, "is because the 'once missing sister of power' that is thought to be your Cordelia...is in fact listed as the middle child, and not the youngest."

Halliwell Manor attic.

Late February, 2000

Piper laid her head on Leo's chest, as they sat on the old couch. A lot had happened lately, including herself and Prue finding out what Leo really was. Mulling over the events of the day she told him, "I almost wish I hadn't given you your powers back. Then you wouldn't be able to leave."

"Me too," Leo said sadly.

"So, if Daisy's a whitelighter-to-be?" the middle sister wondered. "Does that mean you used to be-"

"Human?" Leo asked with a grin. "Yes, it does. I was actually born right here, in San Francisco. I had lived here, all the way up till I went into the war."

"You mean, like Vietnam?"

"No. World War Two." The guardian angel kept going, despite the look she gave him at that revelation, "I had left med school, and enlisted as a medic. I wanted to help save people, not shoot them." He looked lost in thought for a moment. "The last thing I remember I was bandaging a soldier's head wound, I felt a sharp pain and the next thing I know - I was floating, surrounded by whitelighters. They offered me immortality, and the chance to help special people like you. I never once doubted that I didn't make the right choice..."

Leo looked into his ladylove's eyes. "That is, until I met you. Ever since, all I can think is how I'd give it up and have a mortal life again; to have a family, grow old with you."

"Is that possible?" Piper asked, surprised at the hope in her own voice.

He nodded. "Yeah. I can become human again, Piper, if you want me to."

"Are you kidding?" the witch exclaimed. "I want that more than anything, I don't want to lose you again!"

"But..."

She deflated quickly. "But then, you wouldn't be able to help other witches or other future whitelighters, would you? You couldn't save the next Daisy."

A silence overcame them, as the couple both knew that saving the innocents came first. "Can I let you in on a big secret?" Leo then asked her carefully. Piper nodded. "The next Daisy...might in fact be Xander."

"WHAT?!"

The young-looking man said slowly, "I said might be. Your sister's ex-boyfriend - he defies category, even though he's definitely one of my charges. Look, he mustn't know any of this; in fact, only you and Cordelia know the truth. I just thought that you should be in the loop, to help her keep an eye on him if another darklighter tries to take me out."

Piper looked at him and said slowly, "If it did ever happen - if he died and became one of you - then he and my sister couldn't be together either, anymore than we can. Could they?"

Leo just shook his head slowly. (Responsibility. It sucks,) Piper thought glumly.

The future whitelighter Elder hugged her closer to him for a few moments before he said, "I better go." After a quick kiss he whispered, "I love you," before Leo Wyatt vanished in a blazing pattern of white light.

Piper let a single tear slip before she said, "I love you too."

A construction site near a set of train tracks, along the outskirts of San Francisco.

Inspector Andy Trudeau of the SFPD turned around, as his partner approached. "How ya doing?" Daryl Morris asked.

Andy shook his head a little bitterly. "Been better. How about you?"

Morris looked at him, upset. "Those I.A. assholes wanted me to wear a wire."

"Yeah," Andy responded. "So, you wearing one?"

"What do you think?" Daryl said with a sad smile.

"You in any kind of trouble?" Andy asked him.

"Less than you, it seems," the black man answered.

Andy let out a big sigh before he said, "I just want you to know I'm doing it for a good cause."

"Andy, I'm your partner," Daryl told him, "But more importantly, I'm your friend. I wanna believe you're on our side. It would really help me, if I knew why you were doing this. I'm not asking you for I.A., I'm asking you for me. I think you owe me one."

About half a block away, two men watched from a parked car. "I told you they would meet, didn't I?" Inspector Rodriguez said to his partner in the driver's seat.

Inspector Anderson just shook his head, as he tried to adjust the parabolic microphone over the noise of the construction. "Doesn't do us any good if we can't hear them over the noise. I sure wish I could read lips."

Not far away, Daryl looked his friend in the eye. "Who are you covering for?"

Andy thought about it for a moment, before a train started to pass behind them. "It's Prue. And all I can tell you is she's connected to all of our unsolved cases."

"Prue, huh?" Morris said with a groan. "I was so hoping you weren't gonna say that."

Back in the car, Inspector Anderson took off the headphones in defeat. "I can't hear a damn thing."

"He's covering up for Prue Halliwell," Rodriguez said firmly.

Anderson looked at him in complete confusion. 'What? How the hell did you know-" He stopped talking, when Rodriguez turned to look at him. His eyes had changed shape, and turned a blood-red color.

"-oh my God!"

Because of all the noise, no one heard anything as the I.A. Inspector was torn apart by the demon.

Halliwell Manor.

A short time later

Piper was in the attic, not doing anything in particular. As she went to close the window, she spotted something shiny on the couch. The witch bent down, and was surprised with what she pulled up.

"Leo," she said with affection, before she put the pair of World War Two dog tags around her neck.

It wasn't much, but she knew from talks with Xander during the time when they'd rented 'Saving Private Ryan' that soldiers always wore their dog tags. It wasn't much, she told herself, but at least it was something.

In the kitchen, the mood was a little more towards the downside. Xander was absently doing the crossword puzzle from a newspaper a week old, while Prue was getting herself a cup of coffee.

"You know," Cordelia said, as she came in with her shopping bag from the market. "Is it only me, or could you just draw a white chalk outline around this whole place?"

"Well, I don't know what you could possibly mean, Cordelia," Prue said sarcastically, as she sat down at the table near Xander. "I mean the weekend's almost over, we never made it to Cabo, I'm never gonna see Andy again, and Piper's lost the love of her life."

"Hey, the glass is way more than halfway full here, sister dear," Cordelia told her older sibling, as she took out three hollowed-out pineapples from the fridge. "Piper saved the love of her life, we vanquished Alec's sorry ass, and Daisy's on her way back to her family. And we even managed to straighten out our powers, thank God."

Prue looked at her in surprise. "Thank God? I thought that you always wanted an active power."

"Yeah, maybe," Cordelia stated, before she began pouring mixed drinks into the pineapples. "I never thought I'd actually miss my premonitions. Your power was like wearing a dress that was way too tight. Not that that would ever happen," she said as an afterthought.

"Well, I say let's not forget the real bummer about all this," Xander spoke up.

"And what's that?" Prue asked.

"That I never got to strut my stuff along the beach, with three incredibly hot brunettes in bikinis!" the guy told her with a laugh, before Prue smacked him on the arm. Both sisters tried to give him a serious glare but failed, as Harris just sat there smugly.

Finally Prue turned back to Cordelia and told her honestly, "It takes a lot of strength to see what you see."

"I'll drink to that," Cordelia responded, trying to cover up her slight blushing at the compliment. She brought over the alcohol-filled pineapples, setting one in front of each of them, complete with tiny paper umbrellas. "If we can't go to Cabo, we might as well bring Cabo to us." She hit play on the CD player remote, causing reggae music to fill the room.

Prue took her drink, still depressed. "I don't know, Cordy, we still have some serious problems to deal with."

"Problems are for Monday mornings. What do you say?" Cordelia demanded, as she held up her pineapple and looked to her best friend and older sister.

Prue and Xander shared a look, before the oldest Halliwell smiled. "It's gonna be a hell of a Monday morning, but until then..."

All three bumped their pineapples in a toast, before they took a drink.

"You know, there is one thing that I was looking forward to on the beach, that I think we can do here."

"What's that, Cor?" Xander asked her.

The former cheerleader reached into her inside jacket pocket, and pulled out a pair of light blue men's Speedo's.

"Oh, no!" Xander said, as his eyes went huge.

"Oh, you mean we missed the Speedo's?" Prue complained. "Damn, after seeing the pictures, I would have liked to see it live and in person too!"

"Pictures!?" Xander yelled in horror.

Cordelia gave him a very sweet-looking smile. A smile he'd gotten to know all too well, over the years. "What, Xander? You don't remember the swim team photos, from two years ago? I mean, they were in the girls' locker room for at least three months!"

Tuesday, March 28th 2000

Cordelia was trying to talk some sense into Xander. "You shouldn't be going, period!"

"Yeah, but I have to, Cordy," Xander said absently, as he put on his sneakers. "Giles made it clear that they need me for the spell that this Tara chick thought of. It's odd, I know, that even after I move away I'm still somehow the heart of the Scoobies - but there ya go."

"Xander, you live with three super-witches! I mean God, we should be going too if it's so bad!" the young woman told him, upset. "I don't like the idea of you going into a demon-filled underground base with some Frankenstein reject running loose! We should all come with you, so we can-"

"Protect me?" he said simply, with no emotion.

"You're goddamn right I want to protect you!" Cordelia yelled. "What sane witch would let her best friend go into something like that, and not help him out?"

"I'll be alright. Trust me," Xander told her with a smile, as he turned for the door.

But Cordelia stopped him, when she grabbed the guy and turned him back to be face-to-face with her. "I'm warning you, Xander," she said, very determined and almost tempted to tell him what Leo had told her, months ago. "If you die, I am so going to summon your ghost back, just to kick your ass!"

"Don't doubt it for a second. But I'll be okay," Harris told her softly.

"You better be!" Ms. Halliwell responded, as she gave him a peck on the cheek before he rushed out the door.

Penthouse apartment, somewhere in San Francisco.

11:43 p.m., that night

The residence was lit only by fire. Various candles were scattered over the table, kitchen counter and ledges. Also, a large fire was burning in the round fireplace in the center of the room. The lone occupant of the apartment was seated at the table, holding several photographs. As he looked at them, the look on his face grew more determined.

Prue, dropping something in a mail drop box.

Piper, walking down a busy street.

Cordelia, fishing out change for a parking meter.

And the last one. All three sisters sitting near the windows in their home, talking.

Rodriguez looked up very surprised, when the flames in the fireplace crackled and swirled in a firestorm of embers. The burning embers flew into the room, and swirled around one spot. After a second, a cloaked figure appeared in flames; and as they died down, the flames had no effect on the new arrival.

Rodriguez jumped out of his chair, and got to his knees in front of the figure as quickly as possible. "Tempus. I never-"

"Never expected to see me," the figure said as it turned around to reveal a man, or a human-looking male anyway. "Of course not," he then said, as if it was obvious as the guy removed his hood. "You were not worthy before now."

"What is the name you are using here?" Tempus then asked, before he motioned the demon to stand.

"Rodriguez."

"Ah, yes," Tempus said as if it didn't matter at all. "I have been sent to you, Rodriguez. As a gift," he flamboyantly let his cloak drop to the floor.

Rodriguez looked at him in confusion. "Sent? By who?"

"I think you know who and why."

This made the Inspector very agitated. "I can defeat the Charmed Ones on my own. I don't need any help!"

"Really," Tempus mocked him, before he turned to go look out the window and the darkened city. "What makes you think you have actually found the Charmed Ones?"

"Are you kidding?" Rodriguez scoffed. "After so many of my colleagues have mysteriously vanished in San Francisco, these last nine months or so? There can only be one reason why. I posed as a cop, as I believed that one was covering for them. And I was right, he was. That's how I found them."

He looked at Tempus smugly. "Of course, you already know all that, don't you. That's what makes me so worthy now, right?"

Tempus spun on him. "Watch your tongue, Rodriguez, lest I split it for you!" Then calmer he added, "I am the master of time, in ways you cannot hope to comprehend. The fact is you should have been worthy ages ago, last August to be precise - but the Enemy changed its game plan. This is why things are happening now, later than they should have."

Rodriguez was hopelessly confused. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Never mind. Listen to me - it's one thing to have found the Charmed Ones, it's quite another to defeat them - as those who have gone before you have already discovered." The powerful demon pulled out ancient pocket watch. "Tomorrow is Wednesday. I want you to get all three witches together in one place by midnight, and give it your best shot. But if you fail-"

"I will not fail!" Rodriguez growled out.

Totally amused by his subordinate, Tempus told the so-called cop, "Well, if you do fail. I'll be there to help you learn by your failures." He held up a hand to ward off Rodriguez's rebuke, "Trust me. Now, how do you expect to get them together?"

An arrogant smile came over Rodriguez's features. "Trudeau."

Halliwell Manor kitchen.

Wednesday, March 29th 2000

8 a.m.

An attractive, and blond, Weather Girl's voice came from the small 13-inch TV on the counter. "Good morning, San Francisco. Well, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful Wednesday today..."

Cordelia paid her no attention, as she stood in her pajamas talking into the cordless phone. "Piper, what are you doing at Quake? It's like 8:00 in the morning!"

"Morning," Prue called out, as she entered the kitchen with the newspaper.

Cordelia covered the phone as she returned the greeting, "Morning." Then she went back to the conversation with her other sister, "Yes, alright, I'll be there in an hour." As Cordy hung up, she spun around when she heard something fall. Kit had knocked over the large pepper shaker on the counter, and was playing with it.

"You'll be where in an hour?" Prue inquired, as she took a sip of her coffee.

Cordelia just rolled her eyes. "Quake. Piper's doing that thing for the food network today, and she needs me to bring her another dress, because she spilled marinara sauce all over the one she's wearing. God, it's like she never wears an apron anymore?"

"Well," Prue mused. "Just stay out of my closet."

"Oh, don't worry, I don't think she'd want to ruin another one of yours," Cordelia joked.

"I don't believe this!" Prue suddenly exclaimed.

"I'm kidding, Prue," Cordy told her hastily. "Sheesh, don't have an aneurysm!"

Prue shook her head. "No, I'm talking about the paper. Did you see the front page?"

Cordelia's answer was cut off, when they heard tires squeal and a crash from outside. "Where did you park my car last night?" Prue quickly demanded.

"In the driveway...I think," Cordelia answered, panicked.

They ran to the living room, and as Prue pulled back the drapes to look out she said, "Mrs. Henderson's car."

"Oh, thank God," Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief. "No, I mean, that your car's in the driveway and I'm not in the doghouse here. Is she okay?"

"Yeah, just a little fender bender, no big deal," Prue said, as she turned back to her sister. "Cordelia, Andy's in trouble."

The youngest Halliwell's eyes showed genuine concern. "What? Why?"

Prue held up the paper. The front page showed a large picture of Andy and the headline shouted out, 'Inspector Suspected In I.A. Murder'.

Cordelia couldn't believe it. "They think that he killed that Internal Affairs cop? No way!"

Prue eyed it suspiciously. "Maybe it's a setup, trying to force him to reveal our secret."

"Let me see that," Cordelia demanded, before she took the paper. But as soon as she touched it, the witch flinched as a premonition hit her full-on.

In her mind's eye, she saw Andy fly across the room. Then her and Piper kneeling next to him, before Cordelia closed his eyes for the last time. "Oh no," she whispered, horrified.

Prue knew her sibling had just had a vision. "What is it?"

This was one premonition Cordelia didn't want to pass on. "I...saw Andy, Prue...he was killed. Right in this very room."

It took several moments for Prue to collect herself, after hearing that. "Did...did you see a demon or a warlock, in your premonition?"

Cordelia looked to her, still horrified. "No, but the way he was hurled across the room, there had to have been one."

"This room here," Prue demanded.

Cordelia looked down. "Right here, yeah."

"Okay, and you're positive that it was Andy?" Prue asked, grasping at straws.

"Prue," her sister said softly. "It was him."

Prue crossed her arms, and closed her eyes for a moment. "I just want to be sure, alright? This isn't just anybody that we're talking about, you know."

"I know," Cordelia said firmly. "I care about him too."

Prue looked at her apologetically. "I know you do. I'm sorry. Um, right, why don't you fill in Piper, and I'm gonna go warn Andy."

"How?" Cordy wanted to know. "He said it was too risky for you to be seen with him anymore."

"Yeah, well, I don't care," Prue told her firmly. "Let Internal Affairs find out that we're witches. Andy's life is a lot more important."

"Okay, just please be careful. You don't know what kind of demon we're up against here," Cordelia said cautiously. "I mean, Xander and his zat guns are in Sunnydale by now, and Leo's been recalled to wherever those Elders hang out. So it's just us three on this one."

Interrogation Room C, SFPD stationhouse.

A few minutes later

Recently suspended police Inspector Andy Trudeau was sitting and talking to his partner. Darryl was more than just a tad upset, "If you ask me, I wouldn't be surprised if Rodriguez was the one who whacked his own partner."

Andy looked up at him "I.A. already cleared him."

"I.A. cleared I.A.," Morris said angrily. "Go figure."

"Yeah."

Trudeau quickly dropped his concerned face, as Rodriguez entered the room. "What are you doing here, Morris?" the demon demanded.

Darryl frowned at him. "I'm backing my partner, Rodriguez, something you wouldn't know anything about." That caused a slight smirk to appear on Andy's face.

Rodriguez wasn't amused. "This is between him and me."

Andy said simply, "It's okay, Darryl."

Morris slowly left the room, keeping eye contact with Rodriguez before he closed the door. Andy leaned back, and put his feet up on the table. "Just for the record, I'm not saying anything without my lawyer present."

Rodriguez stayed calm. "You don't need a lawyer, that's if you're willing to help me."

"You want me to help you?" Andy laughed bitterly. "What, you can't frame yourself Rodriguez?"

"Look, Andy-"

Trudeau interrupted him angrily, "Oh, it's Andy now."

"I don't think you had anything to do with my partner's murder," Rodriguez said openly, as he sat on the table edge. "But what I do think is completely off the record. And I think you'll understand why."

He held up a photo to the disgraced cop. What was on it caused the human to look away in disgust. (Makes me wanna puke, all right...)

"That's my partner. Or at least, what's left of him," the Hispanic-looking guy said, before he put the picture down. "No human could have done that to him. I think he was killed by something supernatural. And I think you can help me figure out who or what it is."

Andy looked at him with an unreadable expression. "Really. And what makes you think that?"

"Come on, I know all about those unsolved cases of yours, and I know who's behind them too. Who you've been covering for. It's very noble. You must care about her very much, to give up your career for her." Rodriguez leaned in close. "Prue Halliwell...is a witch."

"A witch, huh? You wait here," Andy said, as he got up. "I'll go warn the Wizard of Oz."

Rodriguez stood as well. "I don't have time to screw around, Trudeau. I want you to arrange a meeting between her and me. It has to be tonight. If she can help me find out who killed my partner, I'll drop all charges against you. And I won't tell anyone about her. You think about it," he leaned in close again. "But not for too long."

Rodriguez spun and walked out passing Darryl, who gave him a nasty look. "You alright?"

"I'm not sure," Andy said, as he put on his jacket. "I gotta go see Prue."

That caused Darryl to tell him, "That's funny. She just called and said she had to see you too."

San Francisco shopping district.

A short while later

Tempus was calmly reading the newspaper about Andy, while leaning against the window of a clock store. He turned to watch Rodriguez swipe a flower from a sidewalk vendor, as he approached. The so-called Inspector calmly smelled it, as he came up to the high-level demon.

Tempus looked at him, and as causally as if he was asking about sports statistics said, "Well?"

Rodriguez twirled the flower in his hand. "I'm sure I made Trudeau suspicious of me. He'll go to Prue, and she'll have no choice but to meet with me."

"But you have to get all three of them together."

Rodriguez gave him a smug smile. "Trudeau cares about her. He won't let her risk meeting me alone. He'll insist she have the power of three there with her...for protection."

"And you think you have the power to defeat them all," the slightly mocking tone was back.

"You don't think I do, do you?" Rodriguez growled lightly. "You think I'll fail."

"Time will tell," was Tempus's only answer.

Quake restaurant, North Beach, San Francisco.

A short while later

Cordelia came in, carrying a dress on a hanger in a clothes bag. She looked around all over the place, looking for her sister amongst the cameras and lights being set up.

Piper's voice called to her, "Cordelia! Over here."

The last child born to Victor Bennett and Patty Halliwell rushed over, and handed her the dress. (Better late than never!)

"Thank God!" Piper exclaimed. "The segment producer's gonna be here any minute, and I am a complete and total wreck!" she said, as the young cook let go of the towel she was trying to wipe the stain from her current dress.

"Piper," Cordy tried to interrupt her.

But Piper kept going, "I thought I was gonna have to pull a Celine Dion, and wear my dress backwards!"

"Piper," Cordelia tried again. "You have gotta listen to me. I had a premonition." She hated to say it, "Of Andy dying."

"What?" Piper asked, stunned. "When?"

"This morning!" Cordelia said, annoyed. "Don't you check your voice mail? I called and said it was important."

Piper didn't like this at all. "Oh, no. Where's Prue?"

"She's warning him. But in the meantime, you and I have to figure out who the demon is," Cordelia told her.

At that moment, a woman in what the old Cordelia would call a 'power suit' came into the room. "Piper? Piper Halliwell?" the redheaded woman asked in surprise, while Piper stood behind her little sister to cover the marinara stain. "I would recognize you anywhere; you have not changed a bit!"

At the blank look the woman laughed lightly. "You don't recognize me, do you? It's Joanne. Joanne Hurts, Baker High, class of '92."

It took a moment for Piper to place her. "Oh, sure, of course. Joanne, what are you doing here?"

Joanne gushed a little, "I'm the segment producer."

"You're the segment producer?" Piper tried to hide her surprise, as she turned to Cordelia. "She's the segment producer."

"So I heard," Cordy said with a 'like, gosh' tone.

Piper looked towards her old classmate. "Wow, what a small world. I thought you moved to New York-"

Joanne nodded happily. "Oh, I did. And that's where I met my fabulous husband, who had this crazy idea of starting this little cable show and putting me in charge of everything. And here we are, the food network's most popular show. Talk about dreams coming true." She looked back to Piper. "So anyway, enough about me, what have you been doing?"

Piper smiled a fake smile, before deciding to hell with it and she froze Joanne.

Cordelia looked at her, confused. "Why'd you do that?"

"What am I supposed to say?" her sister complained. "That I'm a cash-strapped single restaurant manager, who still lives in the same house I grew up in - with the sister she remembers, as well as my new other sister and her ex-boyfriend?"

"And the cat," Cordelia said, trying to help. "Don't forget Kit the cat."

"Cordelia, this isn't funny."

"Look, I don't know why you're getting so upset," Cordy told her frankly. "She's a freak. I'm sorry, but no one is that successful at age 26! Besides, you're successful, you're talented, you're creative, and the food network is here to see you. Not me, not her, you. Feel better now?"

"Very little," Piper admitted.

Cordelia nodded in understanding. "Good. Now unfreeze that bitch in heels, you've got a segment to shoot and we've got a demon to find."

Unknown San Francisco city park.

A short while later

Prue and Andy were standing near the large porch swing hanging from a tree that they'd used to come to, when they'd been dating in high school.

"Has Cordelia ever been wrong about her premonitions before?" Andy asked, getting agitated. He hadn't liked being told about his possible upcoming death. But then, what man would?

"No," Prue answered with what he didn't want to hear. "But the good news is every other time, we've been able to affect the outcome. Stop the demon or warlock before..."

Andy interrupted her, "Before I get killed. Can I get that in writing?"

"Andy, you just have to be extra careful until we figure out who this demon is, okay?" When he didn't respond Prue asked, "Andy?"

"I was just thinking," Andy said, thinking it over. "What if the demon was Rodriguez?"

"Why would you say that?"

Andy filled her in, "He pulled me into the stationhouse this morning. I thought he was gonna arrest me. What he really wanted was a meeting with you."

"Meet with me? Why?" Prue asked.

"Because he thinks his partner was killed by a supernatural being, and somehow..." he confessed, "I don't know how, he knows you're a witch."

This did not sit well with Prudence Halliwell at all. "How would he know that, unless-"

"Unless he was the demon," Andy finished for her.

She had no choice, it was obvious. "Alright, uh, tell Rodriguez to meet me at the manor at six o'clock."

"It's too dangerous, Prue."

"I don't have a choice," the brunette woman told him. "If I don't meet with him, he'll try to frame you and try to expose me."

The third generation cop was still not convinced. "But if he is a demon, and it turns out to be a trap-"

"Then I'll have Piper and Cordelia there to back me up, the power of three," his beloved said.

Andy frowned. "What about Harris?"

Prue shook her head. "He's not here right now. There's some out-of-town demon emergency."

"Then I gotta be there-"

She very quickly shook her head firmly. "No. You can't be there, Andy. That's where you were in Cordy's premonition, when...just promise me you'll stay away."

"I can't do that, Prue."

"I mean it," the witch told him forcefully. "Don't make me use my magic on you!"

They both had to smile at that, as they both knew she'd cast a spell on him with a different kind of magic, back when they first fell in love. "I don't want anything to happen to you, Andy. You know how much I care for you."

He didn't like that on bit, but..."Okay, I promise."

On the street outside the Manor.

A little before 6 p.m.

Andy had been sitting in his car, staked out near the manor, for a few hours now. He ducked when he saw Rodriguez pull up. After a beat he looked out to see Kit, who was sitting on the railing by the sidewalk, hissing at Rodriguez walking by. The demon just turned and glared at the cat menacingly.

Inside the manor, the sisters walked towards the small round table near the bottom of the stairs. "Alright, let's go over the plan again," Prue said in full command.

Cordelia quickly agreed, "Yeah, let's, because I wanna know why I'm the one answering the door."

"Because you're the one who knows martial arts," Prue told her again. "Alright? That way if Rodriguez tries something right off the bat, you can knock him down."

"And then I can come in from the living room and freeze him," Piper added.

"And then I can come down the stairs and send him flying," Prue finished the plan.

Cordelia crossed her arms. "Fine, but I still feel like my ass is cannon fodder here."

They all looked up, as the doorbell rang. "What time is it?" Prue asked quickly.

Piper checked her watch. "Just before six." The doorbell chimed a couple more times. "That's a little too anxious, that's not a good sign."

"Which means if he doesn't want to kill Prue, he wants to date her," Cordelia joked badly, as her sisters stared at her for a second.

Prue looked determined, "Come on, let's get this day over with."

"Okay," Cordelia said, as she took a few deep breaths on the way to the door. When the bell rang again she said annoyed, "All right, already!" Then the woman opened it as calmly as she could.

The demon flashed his badge. "Inspector Rodriguez. I'm here to see Prue Halliwell," he said, before he reclipped it to his belt.

"Yeah, no kidding," Cordy said in disgust, as she turned and slowly walked back to the position near the table. "Prue! Piper! Company!"

She turned back to see that Rodriguez was still by the door. Slowly, the man turned and Cordelia looked on in fear - as his eyes were now blood-red, and glowing. And before she could react the demon threw a blue energy ball, that nailed the girl right in the chest.

The former bitch queen hardly had time to scream as the blast threw her off her feet, over the staircase railing and hard into the wall several feet away.

Her impact shattered the plaster, and two large framed pictures. Cordy got covered in glass shards, as her body rolled down the stairs. And she didn't get up afterwards.

"Cordelia!" Piper ran in, panicked.

Rodriguez tried to throw an energy ball at her, but she froze it and him, as the deadly ball reached about halfway to her. She then quickly ran to her fallen sister's aid.

Prue ran down the stairs. "Cordelia!" she yelled, at seeing what has happened to her youngest sibling. In rage, the oldest used her power to reverse the energy ball, sending it flying back to Rodriguez.

The demon unfroze just before it hit him. As the energy crackled around him, Rodriguez screamed out loud, as he got blown up from the inside out. His body vanished, leaving no trace of him - save for the scorch marks.

Prue reached Cordelia first. "Oh, God!" she cried.

"Prue!" Piper called as she reached her sisters. "Is she okay?"

Prue could hardly say it, over her complete horror. "She's dead."

"What?!" Piper yelled, as she turned over her fallen sister. "Cordelia!" she called, as she shook the corpse. "Cordelia! No! How are we supposed to explain this to Xander? Please! NO!"

There was no response as Prue closed Cordelia's dead hazel eyes, before both sisters began to cry over her broken body.

Rodriguez's penthouse.

Thursday, March 30th 2000

Midnight

Tempus casually checked his pocket watch, and saw that it was time. He then picked up a large hourglass, and slowly poured some of the sand into a cauldron. The cauldron threw out a quick flash of flame, and suddenly something incredible happened.

Tempus watched from the large windows, as the moon and the cars on the street below suddenly reversed direction as if they were a VHS tape on rewind. The moon quickly vanished, replaced by the sun as it moved in reverse as well; until it was just peaking above the horizon.

The old demon just waited.

Rodriguez then appeared in the center of the room. He was in the death throes of pain and agony, as the effects of the energy ball dissipated around him. He then collapsed, as the smoke cleared.

Tempus looked down at him. "Hurts to die, doesn't it? Especially at the hands of a witch."

"What happened?" Rodriguez demanded weakly, as he got up. "Where am I?"

"Exactly where you were when all this started," Tempus told him. "Time has been reset; or rather, I have reset time."

Rodriguez was completely confused. "But...but they killed me."

As if it was of no consequence Tempus shrugged. "That was Wednesday night. This is Wednesday morning, all over again. This is why I have been sent to you, to keep resetting time until you learn from your failures. Only you will carry with you the memory of what has happened before. And each time you fail, you will learn more - until ultimately, you kill all of them."

Halliwell Manor.

Wednesday, 29th March 2000

8 a.m.

In the morning outside the manor, a paperboy tossed the paper on to the porch.

Inside the manor...an attractive, and blond, Weather Girl's voice came from the small 13-inch TV on the counter. "Good morning, San Francisco. Well, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful Wednesday today..."

Cordelia paid her no attention, as she stood in her pajamas talking into the cordless phone. "Piper, what are you doing at Quake? It's like 8:00..." She stopped for a moment, unsure. "...in the morning."

"Morning," Prue called out, as she entered the kitchen with the newspaper.

Cordelia covered the phone, as she returned the greeting. "Morning," Cordy said, before she spun to Prue, "Hey, wait a minute."

Before she could say anything more, a noise made her look back. She saw that Kit had just knocked over the large pepper shaker on the counter, and was playing with it. "Whoa," she said, eyes wide. "I am freaking out!"

Cordelia then spoke back into the phone, "Okay. I'll be there in an hour." Then she quickly hung up.

"Be where in an hour?" Prue inquired, as she looked at Cordelia strangely.

Cordy just paused for a few moments. "Okay. Pinch me."

"What?"

"No. I mean it. Pinch me," she told her sister. "I want to make sure I'm awake because if I am, I am having one killer case of déjà vu."

"So it's just déjà vu," Prue shrugged. "Everybody gets it."

Cordelia shook her head emphatically "No, not like this they don't. Look, Prue...something weird is going on here."

Prue ignored her, once she saw the paper. "I don't believe this."

Cordelia misunderstood her completely, "No. I'm...just trust me. This has happened before. Everything."

"I'm talking about the paper. Did you see the front page?" Prue asked.

"See?" Cordelia said, as she leaned on the back of a chair. "Like that. Right there. You said that before. I know it." They both then heard a car crashing. "And that's happened before, too."

Prue looked at her quickly. "Where did you park my car last night?"

Cordelia got rather aggravated, "In the driveway! And I told you that already, the last time you asked me."

Prue didn't totally trust her, and ran to check anyway. As she did so, Cordelia whispered to herself, "I think I'm having an aneurysm..."

Soon enough, Prue was looking out the window in the living room all over again. The oldest Halliwell pulled back the drapes to look out and then said, "Mrs. Henderson's car. Just a little fender bender, no big deal."

Once that was settled, Cordelia went back trying to convince her something was off-kilter. "Prue, I am not nuts. Okay, maybe just a little, but Xander likes to call it my...Cordy-ness."

Prue was hardly even listening to her. "Cordelia, Andy's in trouble."

"What?" she frowned. "Let me see that," the female teenager said, already knowing the effect it would have. And as expected, she got the premonition. "I knew it! That was the premonition I had before."

"Of what?"

She tried to soften the blow, "Of Andy, here, being killed by a demon."

Interrogation Room C, SFPD stationhouse.

The same time as before

Recently suspended Police Inspector Andy Trudeau was sitting and talking to his partner. Darryl was more then just a tad upset, "If you ask me, I wouldn't be surprised if Rodriguez was the one who whacked his..."

He didn't get to finish the sentence this time around, before Rodriguez barged into the room. "What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded.

Darryl didn't even look towards him. "I'm backing my partner; you got a problem with that?"

"Get out now!"

Morris looked at him in stunned silence for a moment, before he tried to lunge at the so-called I.A. Inspector. (Friggin' asshole!)

Andy was just fast enough to hold him back. "It's okay, Darryl, I got it."

A long time seemed to pass, as Morris got up and his eyes seemed to want to bore a hole in Rodriguez as he left. (I'm keepin' an eye on you. You're dirty, I can smell it!)

As soon as the door was closed, Andy put his feet up on the table. "Just for the record, I'm not saying anything without my lawyer present."

"Forget your lawyer, Trudeau," Rodriguez told him in great anger. "I'm not screwing around this time."

"This time?" Andy asked, looking at him strangely. "What are you talking about?"

The demon/Inspector went up to him, and got right in Andy's face. "Bottom line, I know my partner was killed by a supernatural being, and I think Prue Halliwell can help me figure out who did it!"

"Really?" Trudeau said calmly for a moment, before he went with the mocking. "Well, I'll just get the Commissioner to signal Batman, and then I'll get right on it." He tried to get up, but Rodriguez forcefully shoved him back in his seat.

"Do you think I'm joking? I know everything, Trudeau, everything - including the fact that Prue Halliwell is a witch. Now you're gonna arrange a meeting with her tonight, you understand, or else I'm gonna bust your ass and expose hers."

Before Andy could even react, Rodriguez turned and stormed out the door, nearly knocking Darryl over. "What was that about?" the black Inspector asked as he came in.

"I'm not sure," Andy told him, before he quickly grabbed his jacket and took off as well.

San Francisco shopping district.

The same time as before

Tempus was calmly rereading the paper, just waiting. When he felt the other demon nearby he looked down the sidewalk, to see Rodriguez grab the flower from the vendor and angrily tear it apart.

"Well...?"

Rodriguez tried to keep calm. "Trudeau will set up the meet. But what I need to know is how to avoid the pain of getting vanquished again!"

Tempus was vastly amused at the anger. "It depends on whether you learned enough to vanquish them first. What do you remember?"

The demon went over it quickly. "I killed the youngest one, Cordelia, without a fight. But then when I turned to kill Piper - I think she's the one who has the power to freeze."

The older demon quickly advised him, "Adjust, simply anticipate where she's coming from earlier before she has a chance to freeze you. Then kill her, and then Prue."

Quake restaurant, North Beach, San Francisco.

The same time as before

"Andy dies?" Piper asked her sister, shocked. "Are you sure that's what you saw?"

Cordelia quickly nodded. "Yeah, but even worse, I know that I've had that premonition before. I mean, before I had it earlier today."

"What? You mean like yesterday?" Piper asked.

"Yes...I mean, no," Cordelia told her. "It's not just the premonition that I've seen before, it's everything. And don't tell me that it's just déjà vu, because I know it isn't."

"Alright, then what is it?"

At that moment, a woman in what the old Cordelia would have called a 'power suit' came into the room. "Piper? Piper Halliwell?" the redheaded woman asked surprised, while Piper again stood behind her little sister to cover the marinara stain. "I would recognize you anywhere; you have not changed a bit!"

At the blank look, the woman laughed lightly. "You don't recognize me, do you? It's-"

"It's Joanne," Cordelia cut her off. "Joanne...Hertz, right? I'm right, aren't I?"

Joanne got a little agitated. "I'm sorry, have we met?"

"Yes...well, sort of. Before," the seer responded. "Uh, Baker High, class of '92. Although I wasn't in that class, as I was only 11 years old then."

Piper's expression changed, as she remembered the newcomer. "Oh, sure, of course, Joanne!" She turned back to her sister. "Cordelia, how do you-"

Cordy just whispered to her, "That's what I've been trying to tell you. I think we're trapped in some funky time loop here."

Piper looked at her, shocked, as the other woman dared mention that other world in front of a civilian. "Cordelia!" she fiercely whispered back.

"Freeze her. I'll show you."

Piper didn't understand what was going on, but she did what her sibling asked. "Okay, Joanne here," Cordelia started to say, "is the food network's segment producer. She's about to brag how she's happily married to some rich guy, how she's following her dream, how she's had a really bad nose job, blah blah blah."

She stopped and shrugged. "Okay, I added the last part, but I can't be the only one that can tell!" When Piper looked at her annoyed, Cordelia resumed, "This is all gonna make you feel like you're wasting your life away in comparison. Unfreeze her, go ahead - see for yourself."

Piper unfroze Joanne and asked, somewhat unsure, "Are you the segment producer?"

"Why, yes, I am," Joanne said, a little surprised.

"Following your dreams, are you?" Piper continued to press. "Happily married? Stinkin' rich?"

Joanne displayed a big, arrogant smile. "Well, I don't mean to brag, but-"

And she didn't, before Piper froze her again. "Alright Cordy, spill it."

"Okay, the best I can figure is some demon has cast a spell, and I'm the only one who can sort of see it - because my power lets me see things that have happened in different times." When Piper looked doubtful, the brunette added, "Do you have a better explanation?"

Piper shook her head. "No. If you're right, do you think this has something to do with Andy being killed?"

Cordelia said, exasperated, "I don't know, but we're never gonna find who the demon is unless we get to-"

Piper agreed, "Book of Shadows, I'm right behind you!" So saying, the duo quickly left the frozen Joanne behind.

Unknown San Francisco city park.

The same time as before

Prue and Andy were standing near the large porch swing hanging from a tree that they'd used to come to, when they were dating in high school.

Andy didn't like this. "But if he is a demon, and it turns out to be a trap..."

"Then I'll have Piper and Cordelia there to back me up," Prue told him. "The power of three."

Andy frowned. "What about Harris?"

Prue shook her head. "He's not here right now. There's some out-of-town demon emergency-" And as soon as it came out of her mouth, Prue looked away for a moment.

"What is it?" asked her beloved.

Prue looked confused. "This seems a little familiar to me, that's all, kinda like déjà vu." But she let it drop, "Never mind. Andy, before you say anything, you can't be at the meeting. Cordelia's premonition said that's where you were, when...just promise me that you'll stay away."

He moved closer to her. "Prue, I can't do that."

"I mean it. Don't make me use my magic on you!" They shared a small smile at that. "Andy, I don't want anything to happen to you. You know how much I still love you."

He looked into her eyes for a moment. "No, I didn't," he told her, before they hugged each other. And Trudeau never saw the worried look on her face.

On the street outside the Manor.

The same time as before

Andy had been sitting in his car, staked out in near the manor, for a few hours now. He ducked when he saw Rodriguez pull up. After a beat he looked out to see Kit, who was sitting on the railing by the sidewalk, hiss as Rodriguez walked by. The cop was confused at how much hostility that the maybe-demon showed, as he glared at the feline.

Inside the manor Prue, Piper and Cordelia were converged around a small round table, looking over the Book of Shadows. "Is there anything in there about time loops?" Piper asked.

Cordelia flipped back to a page she had marked. "There's a spell to accelerate time, but that's about it," she growled in frustration. "I'm telling you, this is all part of his evil plan. I just haven't had enough time to figure it out yet-"

"You need the other half of your brain back, huh?" Piper asked her with amusement.

Cordelia smiled softly. "We're just good at figuring stuff out together. But of course, good old Super-Slayer Buffy couldn't handle it on her own-" The ringing of the doorbell interrupted her rant.

"What time is it?" Prue asked quickly.

Piper checked her watch. "Just before six."

The doorbell rang three more times rapidly. Cordelia rolled her eyes, "I'll get it!" As she moved for the door, the other two took up their positions.

Piper turned back to look in from the sitting room, when she heard the doorbell yet again. She then heard the door slam open, and was stunned at the sight of her youngest sister flying across the other room. She ran in and yelled, "Cordelia!"

Her sudden distraction turned out to be her undoing, as Rodriguez fired off an energy ball before she could raise her hands to freeze him.

The middle sister flew across the room, shattering the glass doors to the solarium. She landed in a horrible heap, halfway into the other room. And unfortunately like Cordy, she did not get up again.

Prue reacted on pure instinct, as she used her powers to toss the energy ball Rodriguez threw at her right back at him. She didn't even watch, as the demon was electrocuted and vanquished by his own weapon. Prue just ran to Cordelia, lying motionless at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh my God, no!" she said, shaking her sister. "Cordelia!" After a few moments of getting no response, the oldest sister ran to the fallen Piper. "Piper! Come on, wake up!"

Prue held her sister close, as she got no response from her either. "No...this can't be happening!"

Rodriguez's penthouse.

Thursday, March 30th 2000

Midnight

Tempus shook his head in annoyance, as he poured more sand into the cauldron. After the bright flash, he didn't even bother watching as the world outside the window went into rewind again.

As before, Rodriguez appeared as the energy ball's effects wore off. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled in anger and pain. His face was flushed with sweat, but nonetheless looked pissed.

"Failed again, I see."

Rodriguez's anger only grew. "Yeah, but I learned. This time I got two of them." He drew out a cruel smile. "Third time's the charm."

Halliwell Manor.

Wednesday, 29th March 2000

8 a.m.

In the morning outside the manor, a paperboy tossed the paper onto the porch - not knowing a thing, about how old the routine was getting.

Inside the manor...an attractive, and blond, Weather Girl's voice came from the small 13-inch TV on the counter. "Good morning, San Francisco. Well, it looks like it's going to be a beautiful-"

Cordelia cut the girl off, as she grabbed the remote and shut the TV off. Then she talked into the phone in her other hand, "No, don't tell me, I already know. You spilt marinara sauce on your dress, right? Am I right? Think, Piper, think. Doesn't all of this seem awfully familiar to you?"

"Morning," Prue called out, as she entered the kitchen with the newspaper.

Cordelia spun to face her. "Freeze!" She went back to the phone, "No, not you Piper!" The 19-year-old nudged Prue, and pointed to the counter. "Kit knocks over the pepper shaker. Meows."

Prue gave her a very uneasy look, as Kit did exactly what Cordelia said she would. "Hold that thought." Then she quickly spoke into the phone, "Piper, you need to get home as soon as you can, okay, we've got major demon hunting to do. Oh, and if you run into someone named Joanne from high school, just tell her to go stick it. I'll explain later, just hurry."

"Okay, what's going on?" Prue demanded.

Cordelia just grabbed her arm, and ran with her to the sitting room. She plopped Prue down in front of the window, as she held open the drapes. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1...car honks."

A car honked.

"It skids," Cordy continued.

A car skidding was heard.

"Crashes."

Prue watched the car slide into the neighbor's parked one. She turned to Cordelia, absolutely stunned, but her little sister kept going, "Mrs. Henderson's car. A little fender bender. Good thing I parked your car in the driveway last night, huh?"

"Cordelia..." Prue stammered, walking towards her. "How did you know all that was going to happen?"

"Because this has all happened before, Prue," Cordelia told her, as she began to pace. "Maybe even more than once. The day keeps repeating itself. I know it, and every time it happens - I think I figure it out just a little bit faster."

The young woman stopped to consider it carefully. "It must be my power of premonition. Premonition...oh! I'm supposed to be having a premonition right about now."

Prue was getting even more confused. "Supposed to? What do you mean?"

Cordelia looked at Prue's hands. "The paper. Look at the front page."

"Andy..." Prue said softy, as she read the headline to herself.

"Is in trouble. More than you know," Cordelia told her, resolute. "Prue. If I touch that paper, I'll have a premonition. The same one that I've had before. Where Andy gets killed right here, by a demon. You have got to believe me!"

Prue could hardly tear her eyes off the headline. "No, I believe you. The question is, what do we do about it?"

"Well, you've got to go warn Andy. Keep him away from our house at all costs," Cordy said as she took charge, much as she'd been the leader of the pack in high school. "Meanwhile, I've got to dig through the Book of Shadows, and try to find a way to vanquish this time demon before he can kill Andy!"

San Francisco shopping district.

The same time as before

On the other side of the clock store window Tempus was leaning against, an old clock made a loud ruckus as it announced the hour. However, it didn't get to finish as Rodriguez pulled out his gun and fired a round at it, shattering the device.

Tempus's annoyance at him grew visibly. "You really shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't do anything differently, if you want to succeed tonight."

But Rodriguez had had it. "I will succeed tonight, old man. There'll be no more time loops. This time, I'll kill Prue first and then the other two - and when they die, they're gonna feel every ounce of pain they've given me, and then some!"

Quake restaurant, North Beach, San Francisco.

The same time as before

Piper grabbed her purse from behind the counter. "Look, Joanne, I'm so sorry, but I can't do this segment right now. Um, something's happened, something bad, I have to go."

"What? Run out of marinara sauce?" Joanne asked smugly, as she examined Piper's top.

(To hell with it!) Piper thought. "Look, I know I don't have the flashy job or the flashy ring or the flashy designer suit, but that doesn't make me less than you or anybody else. And just because I may not have realized my dreams yet like you think you have, doesn't mean I won't find a way to do exactly that. And when I do, you can be damn sure I'll be doing it with my own nose, and not the one some discount doctor gave me!"

As she ran off, Piper missed Joanne quickly checking out her nose's profile in the mirror. "How could she tell?"

Unknown San Francisco city park.

The same time as before

"A time loop?" Andy asked, as he rubbed his temples. "You mean, demons can actually do that sort of thing?"

Prue didn't think so, and yet..."None that I've ever seen before, but if it is a demon, it's the most powerful one we've ever come up against."

"He's going through all this, just to kill me?" Andy looked at her. "No way, Prue. If he's as powerful as you say, then he's coming after you."

"Andy, please just let us handle this," she pleaded with him. "Whatever you do, you have to promise me that you'll stay away from the manor."

There was no way Andy was going to go for that. "I can't promise you that, Prue. If you're right and Rodriguez is the demon, then it's a trap."

"I'll have Piper and Cordelia there to back me up, alright, the power of three."

Andy frowned. "What about Harris?"

Prue shook her head. "He's not here right now. There's some out-of-town demon emergency..." And once more, the feeling of déjà vu, of impending doom hit Prudence Halliwell right in the gut. "The three of us can handle it-"

That in no way reassured her companion. "What if that's what he wants, Prue? All three of you together. What if that's the reason he set up this time loop?"

Prue gave him what some would call a 'resolve face'. "We'll just have to take our chances."

"You could get killed, Prue!"

"I mean it. This is not your fight. Don't make me use my magic on you!" Then her tone went from stern to gentle. "Andy, I would die if anything happened to you. I love you."

He never hesitated for an instant. "I love you too."

As they hugged, Prue buried her face in Andy's shoulder.

On the street outside the Manor.

The same time as before

Andy had been sitting in his car, staked out near the manor, for a few hours now. He ducked when he saw Rodriguez pull up. After a beat he looked out to see Kit, who was sitting on the railing by the sidewalk, hiss as Rodriguez walked by.

The cop was shocked at what happened next.

Rodriguez spun to face the cat, his face contorted in rage. Kit quickly turned and ran off, when Rodriguez's eyes turned a dark inhuman red color.

All of Andy's training and instincts kicked in at that moment. "Oh my God! Prue!" He pulled out his pistol and ran for the house, only seconds behind Rodriguez.

Inside the manor Prue, Piper and Cordelia were converged around the small round table, looking over the Book of Shadows. The book was open to a page with a drawing of an hourglass, and the word 'TEMPUS' in large red letters.

Cordelia read aloud from it, "Tempus, the devil's sorcerer. He can manipulate time any way he chooses."

"Does it say how to vanquish him?" Piper asked.

Cordelia quickly scanned the rest of the text. "Uh, take him out of the time that he's in. Whatever the hell that means."

Rodriguez kicked open the door and fired off an energy ball, before he was even all the way inside. He was fast...but Piper was quicker. She shoved Prue down, just in time. Cordelia twisted her body too, barely in time as the energy left a scorch mark on the wall.

The two sisters with offensive powers were both down, but in that timeless second Andy burst in through the door. "NO!!" he yelled, and fired three times into Rodriguez.

The demon flinched from the bullets, but was only angered more as he threw a deadly energy ball at the Inspector point-blank.

"Andy!!" Cordelia screamed as their friend, and Prue's boyfriend, flew through the air...just as she had foreseen.

His body smashed into the large lighted display cabinet in the corner. The force was so great that it shattered the cabinet completely, and Andy never even felt it when his neck was snapped by the impact.

Piper got up off the floor. With a quick wave of her hand, Rodriguez was frozen in mid-windup to throw another energy ball. "Are you okay?" she asked Cordy.

Cordelia nodded, still in shock as she went over to her older sibling. "Uh-huh, but is Prue okay?"

"Yeah, she's out cold," Piper said softly, as she took a look. "She hit her head."

Then without a word, they both rushed over to where Andy was lying. The duo could see the blood from the glass shards, spilling onto the rug. Piper quickly checked for a pulse, but..."Oh my God. He's dead."

Cordelia tried but failed to fight back the tears, as she closed his eyes.

They had quickly tied up Rodriguez to a chair, before he unfroze. Now Piper was sitting near the still-unconscious Prue, as she tried to keep from crying about the death of a decent man she had known all her life; a boy she had grown up with, who her sister had dated and been meant to grow old with.

Cordelia, on the other hand, was all business. She growled at Rodriguez, "Listen up good, bozo. The only reason you're still alive, is because I haven't worked out how to kill you yet!"

Rodriguez just laughed at her. "Go ahead. Kill me, witch. I don't care," he told her smugly.

"Cordelia, what are you doing?" Piper demanded, as she pulled her aside.

"I'm trying to save Andy."

Piper looked at her, surprised. "Andy, Andy's dead. You can't save him, Cordy."

"No? We're in a time loop, aren't we? All we have to do is start the day over, and Andy lives again." She turned back to the captive demon. "And funnily enough, I'm willing to bet that his death somehow triggers the time loop."

"I'm impressed," Rodriguez had to admit. "I was told you wouldn't know that. Not that it matters, anyway."

Cordelia got a nasty grin on her face, the kind only those who had ever feared Queen C's wrath ever saw. "Really? Told by whom? Tempus?" Rodriguez quickly looked away. "Yeah, yeah, we know about him too. And we also know you're not him, otherwise you would of started the day again by now. So, where do we find him?"

The smug look came back, full force. "In your nightmares. Kill me. I dare you."

Piper pulled Cordelia away, before she tried to rip him apart. "Why is he so willing to let us kill him?"

"Who cares?" Cordelia said, determined. "If he dies, Andy lives. End of story."

"What if that's exactly his plan?" Piper suggested. "To reset the day, and he can kill us all next time?"

"It doesn't matter," Rodriguez gloated. "The day's gonna reset itself anyway, there's not a damn thing you can do about it!"

Piper growled at him, "Shut up!" She grabbed Cordy's arm. "Come on, we have to wake up Prue."

"Prue. Prue? Come on, we need your help!" Cordelia tried to rouse her.

But in another place, Prue heard a very different voice.

Unknown heavenly dimension.

A moment later

"Prue. Prue. Come to me, Prue."

Prue Halliwell looked around in confusion. She found herself sitting on the large porch swing from the park, but she couldn't see what it was hanging from. In fact, the brunette couldn't see anything other than the swing and the blue-grey fog all around her.

The future photographer quickly saw a friendly face walk up to the swing, though. "Andy? What's going on? Where are we?"

Andy looked around, before he sat next to her. "I'm not quite sure, really. I hoped I'd end up here, but not so soon. One thing I do know is, that I'm staying. You're not."

"I don't understand."

Andy told her sadly, "I broke my promise, Prue. I came to your house tonight. Turns out, Cordelia's premonition was one you couldn't stop after all. Weren't supposed to stop."

She finally grasped what was going on. "Wait a minute, Andy, no!"

He reached over, and softy caressed her hair. "It's okay, Prue, really - trust me. This is my destiny. I know that now. Yours is to continue on. Everything happens for a reason, remember - you taught me that."

She looked at him, not wanting this to be true. "This isn't fair."

"You need to go back," Andy calmly told her. "You need to keep the time loop from being reset again, or else you and your sisters will be killed. And I will have died in vain."

Prue's look grew very dark. "I'll kill Rodriguez for this!"

"No you won't," her man quickly told her. "You're not a murderer, Prue, you're a good person who does good things."

"I don't want to lose you," the poor woman said, as her hand grasped the one caressing her hair.

"Don't worry. You won't, you can't," They leaned in for a last kiss. "I'll always be there for you, Prue."

And then he was gone.

Halliwell Manor, San Francisco, California.

A moment later

She finally heard Cordelia's voice. "Prue, come on, honey. Prue?"

"Prue, come on, wake up, sweetie!" Piper then tried. They both breathed a sigh of relief as Prue woke up, and they slowly helped her up.

"Easy, not so fast," Cordelia told her big sister.

There was only one thing on Prue's mind. "Where's Andy?"

"Prue, something terrible has happened," Cordelia told her softly, her heart breaking in anguish.

The eldest sibling could hardly think, as she saw Andy lying on the floor covered by a blanket. "Oh my God."

Piper tried to explain, "It all happened so fast. He ran in through the door when Rodriguez attacked, he was trying to save us-"

Both sisters were surprised by the determination that came over their older sister then. "And he'll succeed. Where's the Book of Shadows?"

Cordelia grabbed it from the table. "Right here."

"Where's the spell that you saw to accelerate time?"

That got Rodriguez's attention "What are you doing?"

"Here," Cordelia said, as she flipped to the page.

Piper didn't like this. "But we don't want to accelerate time, we want to reverse it."

"No we don't, trust me," Prue told her, as she wiped a few tears away. "The only chance that we have to get rid of Tempus is to do this by breaking the time loop, okay?"

Cordelia didn't like it either. "But if we break the time loop, we won't be able to save Andy!"

Prue just looked past her, to Andy's body. "I know."

Piper wasn't ready to give up. "Prue, are you sure?"

"No I'm not," she said, as the head of the family got up. So before the eldest sister could rethink it she started reading the spell, 'Winds of time gather 'round, give me wings to speed my way-'"

"Wait a minute-" Rodriguez said, getting panicked.

"'Rush me on my journey forward, let tomorrow be today'."

Rodriguez glared at her. "What did you do?"

They all stared, as the grandfather clock's hands start to move blindingly fast. Hours went by in moments...

At Rodriguez's penthouse, Tempus saw the sun setting fast and quickly pulled out his pocket watch. Its hands were also zipping along, and stopped at 12:05 a.m.

He screamed once before getting swallowed by fire, and vanquished.

Halliwell Manor.

Thursday, March 30th 2000

12:05 a.m.

Piper asked, "What do we do with him?"

Prue looked to Andy's body in the other room, and back to Rodriguez. She remembered what Andy told her, "You know what, just untie him. Get him outta here."

The reaction to that was very negative. "What?" Cordelia demanded.

"He'll kill us!" Piper stated angrily.

But Prue didn't budge. "No he won't. He doesn't have the power to kill us; otherwise, he wouldn't have needed Tempus."

Cordelia looked at him and vehemently stated, "I will not untie him, Prue!"

So Prue waved her hand, and used her power to untie the evil thing. And as he got up she told the demon, "Get out of here before I change my mind."

Rodriguez looked at her with pure hate. "You stupid witch!"

He smugly walked towards the door, but then stopped. He turned around, his eyes back to their demonic red, and looked at them for a split second - before Rodriguez threw an energy ball right at Prue's head.

Prue just raised her hand, and her power deflected the ball right back at the demon. He died screaming by his own weapon, again. Permanently this time.

Prue looked at her sisters. "We may not be murderers; but we're no angels either."

Cordelia and Piper put their arms around each other for support, as they watched Prue. Their older sister walked over to Andy's body and held nothing back, as she wept over his now-cold corpse.

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California.

Thursday, March 30th 2000

12:10 a.m.

"Are you sure you'll be all right?" Buffy asked the young man. "'Cause I can be there in the morning."

Riley Finn shook his head, as he leaned on the banister in the entryway. "It's just a debriefing. They're not gonna make me disappear, and they're not pinning anything on me. I got Graham and a lot of the guys testifying I'm the reason they're alive. I might actually get out of this with an honorable discharge."

"In return for your silence, no doubt," Giles chimed in.

"Oh yeah," Riley told him. "Having the inside scoop on the administration's own Bay of Mutated Pigs is definitely an advantage."

Willow giggled a little. "It's like you're blackmailing the government. In a...patriotic way," she quickly added, before she followed Tara into the living room.

"Oh, I'm sure they're used to blackmail," Xander said acidly. "Granted though, most of the time, they're the ones doing it."

Buffy glared at Xander; she had no idea why he had been so hostile to Riley ever since arriving back, but she and Willow were determined to find out. Along with convincing him to move back home where he belonged, of course.

"I'll call you when it's over," Riley told her, ignoring Xander's comment before he kissed his woman goodbye. "And, you guys have fun tonight!" He quickly extended his hand to Joyce as well. "It was very nice meeting you."

The Slayer's mom shook his hand back. "It was nice meeting you...finally."

Riley nodded. "Bye," he said as he left.

"Bye!" Buffy told him as she shut the door. But as soon as it was closed, she spun on her Xander-shaped friend. "Alright, spill Xander!"

Xander just shook his head. "It's private stuff, Buffy. Nothing to do with you." When the blonde Champion showed him that annoyed look that he remembered so well, Harris then added, "And so help me God, if you so much as mention it's like Angel all over again-"

"I wasn't going to say that..." Buffy stammered, even though that was exactly what she'd been going to say. "Xander, look, it's time we put all that behind us - right?"

"Fine with me," Xander shrugged. "What's new with Deadboy, anyway? Haven't heard squat about him in nearly a year."

Buffy looked away. "He's - not good. This detective agency he set up is having trouble. His home and office kind of blew up. Wesley and their friend Tina were in the hospital for awhile."

Xander grimaced. "No one can catch a break anymore can they? Wait, what's Wesley doing in-"

He was cut off, by the sound of his own cell phone ringing. Harris took one look at the screen, before he went into another room.

"Let me guess," Willow said, very displeased. "It's Cordelia calling?" She looked at her best friend, "I swear, Buffy, it's like she has some way to know whenever we try to talk to him! Then again, she's a seer, that may be more likely than not..."

"Girls," Giles said sternly. "Let's let it drop for now, okay?"

Willow was about to protest, when Xander came back in. And she could tell he was not the bearer of good news. (Oh, no...)

"I've got to get back to San Francisco. Sorry guys, but I'm going to have to skip movie night," Xander said, checking his watch.

"But you just got here!" Willow cried. "I mean you can't just come down, help stop a cyborg killing machine and then take off again. We haven't talked since forever!"

He tried to interrupt her, "Look, Willow, we can maybe start emailing..."

"And besides," the redhead kept going. "Someone you know wanted to come by and say hi."

Xander just gave her an odd look. "What? I thought you said Oz had left town!"

"Not him," Buffy said shortly.

"Then who?" he asked, unsure where this was going.

There was a knock at the door, and Buffy opened it right away. And when Xander saw who it was, he did a double take.

There in the doorway was a girl, or rather former demon, that he hadn't seen since before Graduation. Anya Jenkins was there, dressed in skin-tight red leather pants and a very low-cut top. Basically, she was looking like a damned sexy clone of Faith.

"Anya?" he asked her in semi-confusion. "When did you get back into town?"

"Oh, not long ago," she told Xander, as the woman quickly came over and linked her arm around his. "Does that cover the small talk part?"

"What?!"

She just looked at him. "Well, I'm not really sure what constitutes the minimum amount of small talk that's socially acceptable these days. But since you're a male, I figure that should be sufficient. Now, I have a place near here, where you can remove my unnaturally painted cow skin pants-"

Xander yanked his arm free. "Excuse me?!"

"That was an invitation for us to have sex-" Anya started to say, but he cut her off.

"Yeah, I know what it was!" Xander looked at Willow scathingly. "Blind date?"

Willow tried to play it off. "What? She likes you. Why shouldn't a girl help set up her best friend?"

"Look, not now okay?! Because a good cop I knew and respected has just died!" Xander said angrily, as he grabbed his jacket off the hanger on the wall.

Everyone else was stunned, as the 19-year-old guy turned to face his almost Prom date. "Look, Anya, I'm sure you're a great girl. And with all your centuries of experience, odds are you can do some really mind-blowing stuff. But it's equally obvious the only thing you want from me, is a sex poodle or something like that. If this were a few years ago...or even nine months ago...I think we'd have hit it off. But here and now, I have something else going on that-"

"Oh, so Cordelia is giving you orgasms!" Anya stated.

"What? No!" He looked to all three of the girls in the small entryway. "Look, I have to go, like I said; we've just lost one of the good guys back home. Tell G-man and Joyce goodbye for me; and just email me or something, if you wanna talk. Giles has the address." He opened the door to leave, when Anya asked...

"Is that so we can engage in cybersex? I have heard that can be immensely fun, you know."

"Aghhhh!" Xander yelled in aggravation, as he closed the door behind him.

Buffy and Willow looked at each other. "Guess it was worth a try," Willow said, hurt and yet feeling very sorry for Xander's loss at the same time.

As they went into the living room to join the others, Anya looked perturbed. "But you guys said he would give me orgasms!"

However, when no one paid her any attention, the 1120-year-old just stormed out of the house. Anya then noticed a masculine specimen around her own age walking down the sidewalk across the street, so she quickly ran over to him. "Hey, you...you're a male of the species!"

The guy turned in surprise, to see the leather-clad goddess of a woman come up to him. "Do you have a girlfriend?" Anya asked him bluntly.

"Ah, no..." he said, trying to keep his eyes on her face.

"I can see that you like the sight of my breasts. Do you deny this in any way?" Anya asked him.

"I'm sorry, I-I-I didn't mean to stare..." the young man stammered.

"Oh, don't worry about that," she waved him off. "We have more important matters to discuss."

"Really? Uh, not that I'm complaining, but - why would someone like you, want to talk to someone like me?" he asked.

"You said you have no girlfriend, and we are within the same apparent age bracket. Your hand and shoe size are also likely indicative of a large penis-" She stopped. "You don't suffer from any form of erectile dysfunction, do you? Like that old man on TV?"

"No!" the guy said very quickly.

"Good!" she told him, beaming. "Then you'll do."

"Do for what?"

"Well, I tried to get the male that I've wanted for a while now to give me pleasing orgasms, but he seems to still be stuck on his previous partner. The whole thing was getting ridiculous and old!" She linked her arm with his. "So I just thought to hell with all that, and I get my own man already. Well - a plaything to start out with, anyway."

"Plaything!?"

"Yes, I need you to give me as many orgasms as your weak and inferior male anatomy can possible handle, for the next 50 years or whatever."

"Okay, uh, look..."

"Excellent!" Anya smiled happily, as she steered him towards her apartment. "What is your name, by the way?"

"Ah..." he stuttered. "Jon...Jonathan. Levinson."

"Very well, Jonathan Levinson," the centuries-old woman said, before they turned the corner. "What are your feelings on role-playing, spanking and bondage games? I've read that they can be quite fun and enjoyable."

Bayside Cemetery, San Francisco, California.

Saturday, April 2nd 2000

3 p.m.

The SFPD honor guard and the other mourners finally left, and Prue was able to be alone with Andy's casket before it was lowered into the ground. She placed a single red rose on its lid, before she softly started saying her good-byes to her soul mate. Hoping that wherever he was, the dearly departed could hear her last farewell.

In the distance, giving her some privacy, stood four people dressed in black. Darryl and Piper comforted each other, while Cordelia clung to Xander; who had his right arm firmly around her waist.

(Life can be so damned short and precious,) the former Chase girl thought to herself, in between the tears. (What was it Buffy said to Willow, all those years ago? Oh, right, carpe diem. Seize the day...)

Cordelia Halliwell then made a silent promise to herself, as she watched her older sister from afar. (There's no point pretending anymore. Possible future whitelighter or not, I know where my destiny lies now.)

Of course, the former May Queen knew she wasn't ready to begin a relationship with Xander again, at least not right at this moment; she couldn't give herself to him mind, body and soul tonight, however...tempting the concept was. Because if she tried, they would only end up bitter enemies once more.

But someday, they would be together, and the brunette knew that he would wait for her. Cordy didn't know how she knew this, she just knew it.

Come what may in this new life that she, no - that they both had, they would face each challenge as best they could...together.