Author's Notes: This is my Xander-centric version of the Charmed episode 216, "Murphy's Luck". Also has back story for the NBC series "Viper". (wwwdottvtomedotcom/Viper) As well as a tiny bit AU for the Nash Bridges ep "Something Borrowed". And just incase anyone doesn't know, the Belthazor in this is the Charmed series one, and not the big fat one from season 3 Buffy.

And now...

San Francisco's SIU (Special Investigations Unit) HQ

Wednesday, January 17th 2001

2:30 p.m.

Inspector Daryl Morris looked out over the water from their spot, farther down the pier. "This is just too much, man..."

"Yeah, well, I know it's a bit overwhelming..." Xander sighed, as he tossed some bread to the seagulls. The former Hellmouth resident had told his friend what was the what with the real world all around them, containing demons and vampires - and the black man was obviously finding it hard to cope.

"Overwhelming?" Daryl asked, turning back to Harris. "What you're telling me is that everything I ever thought was a fairy tale - is actually real. Hell, even kids' fairy tales are real!"

"Well, just the one that I know of so far," Xander said with a shrug. "But if the Gingerbread thing was real, then I'm betting the rest have some basis in fact somehow..."

"You were saying that vampires are the things I need to watch out for the most?" the cop then asked.

"Yeah," Xander told him. "They seem to be the most numerous kind of demon running around, that feed on human beings. Normally they hang out in nests of up to, oh, ten max, I'd say. And if they act too coordinated, then they could be the foot soldiers of a higher demon."

"Are the movies right on how to kill them?" Daryl wanted to know. "Stake through the heart, or cutting off the head?"

"If you go for the heart, it has to be wood. Or maybe blessed silver, but that's not so easy to come by without someone asking too many questions," Xander replied. "As for the head, anything goes. Slice and dice-age with whatever's handy. Set 'em on fire, and that'll dust them as well. Holy water is like acid to them, and that's lethal if you dunk 'em in it or whatever."

"Crosses and garlic?" Daryl asked, as they started to walk back to the SIU barge.

"Garlic never worked much that I saw back in the 'dale, although I've heard they hate the stuff," Xander said, walking alongside him. "A cross or other religious icon such as a Star of David and whatever the Muslim symbol is, they work as well."

"One last thing. If this world is full of these things?" Daryl commented. "Then I can't understand how I never came across...well, I don't know, SOMETHING before now!"

"You probably did," Xander told him with another shrug. "But your conscious mind just repressed it, out of trying to preserve your sanity. Take Cordy, for example. Sophomore year, she was about to be sacrificed to a vamp one night - and the next Monday she, along with everyone else, had turned them into gang members high on PCP!"

After a few more questions, they came onto the barge and were walking towards Daryl's desk - when Captain Bridges called them over. "Daryl, c'mere, you might get a kick out of this!"

Xander made to leave, figuring this was official police business, but Bridges called him over again. "Hey Bubba, you're not exactly a stranger! You can stay if you want..."

Walking over to the long table, Xander saw the two female cops he had met before. Officer Cassidy Bridges and Inspector Rachel McCabe. Also, there were Inspectors Antwon Babcock, Harvey Leek, Lieutenant Joe Dominguez, and a black man in a wheelchair.

"Inspector Daryl Morris, Alexander Harris," Captain Bridges said. "Allow me to introduce an old friend of mine." He indicated the man in the wheelchair, "Dr. Julian Wilkes."

"Pleased to meet you," Daryl told the man, as they shook hands.

"Same here," Xander added, when he shook hands with the doctor.

The captain nodded towards rolls of blueprints on the table. "Julian here was about to show us his baby."

Wilkes instantly unrolled one of the blueprints. "Hopefully, this is going to be the next generation in police pursuit vehicles..."

"Ah, Bubba?" Bridges told his friend. "I don't think the department will be shelling out for new Dodge Vipers-"

"It's not what you think, Nash!" Julian said excitedly, as he picked up another roll. "That's the Viper in regular mode." He unrolled the second roll. "This is the Defender mode."

Harvey whistled, as he looked at the printed image of the silver armored car. "Nice. But I don't get it."

Xander was the first to notice the upper right part of the blueprint. "Hexagonal morphing?" He looked to the grinning Wilkes. "They're the same car?"

"How can that be?" Harvey demanded. "The 'Defender' has the basic lines, but-"

Julian opened his laptop computer. "This is how it's going to work, and yes - once we get the funding, it WILL work..."

He hit Play, and the group watched as a 3-D animation of a standard red Dodge Viper appeared. The legend 'Activating Defender Mode' appeared underneath the car.

"Very cool," Cassidy said as all over the red car, hexagons became visible and turned the body silver. The side mirrors folded in and the rear tube shape along the doors retracted, allowing their silver counterparts to emerge.

The hood seemed to melt into the front of the car, making the headlights look like the eyes of a snake. Adding to the look, the front grill retracted to let two large fang-like protrusions take their place on the front. The armoured roof with double dark oval windows appeared next.

The final touch was a silver spoiler. The car in its complete 'Defender' mode looked very much like its reptilian Viper namesake.

"You can actually turn one car into another, at the push of a button?" Xander asked amazed, and at the same time wanting one for himself.

"We already have a working prototype of the morphing armour," Julian told him. "The car itself won't be ready for a while yet; it'll be a couple of years before we can pool all the systems into one." He looked to Nash. "I just hope you're the Chief of Police around here, by the time we get this baby into production."

"Bubba," Nash said, looking at the schematics. "If this engine works half as good as it reads..."

"I'm curious," Rachel said. "Why does the tube at the base of the doors change? Why not just have them 'morph', along with the rest of the body?"

Julian's eyes lit up at the question. He'd been hoping someone would ask that. "It changes for the weapons pods."

"Weapons?" Joe asked in amazement.

A third blueprint was unrolled. This one showing the inside of the twin tubes on each side of the Defender. Each had three launch tubes imbedded into them. "So far, the three payloads we are working out are the tunneller missile, a grappling hook, and a static pulse."

"What's a static pulse?" Cassidy wanted to know.

"An end to long car chases live on Fox," Julian answered. "After charging, the weapons pod will fire a pulse that will fry any target's electrical system."

"Nice," Harvey had to admit. "You kill the electricals, you kill the car."

"Better to short out the car, then let the guy run into someone down the road during the chase," Nash agreed. He then read off the rest of the specials list. "Four wheel tire enlargement, winch, extendable battering ram, and a holographic projector? If you can pull this off, it will be MIGHTY impressive."

"We already have one thing finished," Julian told him, as he activated another program on the computer. "If you wouldn't mind opening that silver case on the floor?"

Joe bent down, and unlatched the two latches on the deep medal case. Opening it up he asked, "And what is that supposed to be?"

Everyone looked in, to see a silver lunch box-sized device with two enclosed minute turbines on an arm sticking off of each side. Xander thought, (Reminds me of a miniature car engine...)

"Back up," Julian told them. And when they did, he activated the probe.

"Geez!" Harvey exclaimed, as the probe started and quickly rose up out of the case on its own. It hovered almost silently at eye level with the Inspector.

Harvey looked at the camera lens staring at him, then turned and saw the side of his face showing up on the computer screen. "Ah, man!" he groaned. "I don't have that many grey hairs back there, do I?"

"Sorry Harv," Nash told him with a grin. "That's the problem with getting old."

"So I'm guessing the car's driver can deploy this thing to look into dangerous areas?" Joe asked the designer.

"You got it," Julian answered him. "And it can do MUCH more than just record audio and video..." He changed the commands on the controls, and the viewscreen changed to infrared. Then the probe flew backwards to the roof of the barge, another level up.

They watched, amazed, as the entire SIU was shown in patterns of heat. "I'd switch it to night vision, but it's way too bright right now," Julian said, looking at the sun coming in from the open bay doors. "However, there's another trick it can do..."

He handed Xander the empty cardboard tube that the blueprints were in. "Here - hold this at one end, above your head."

"Okay..." Xander did as he was told.

They watched as the screen went back to normal on the laptop, and Julian clicked on the tube in Xander's hands. Two small leg grips extended from the base of the probe, before it shot into motion. Before Xander even knew what was going on, the probe flew down and snatched the tube from his hands, and then flew out the open bay door.

"Holy cow, that was fast!" Harvey exclaimed.

"Where'd it go?" Cassidy asked, looking around from the deck of the barge.

"Just watch the screen," Julian told them.

And they did. They watched the screen showing the probe's camera view, as it piloted out over the barge and into the parking lot. It went right where Julian directed it to go, Captain Bridges' bright yellow 1970 Hemi Cuda. The probe hovered right above the back seat, before dropping the tube into the seat.

With the sound pulled up, they could all hear the light 'thunk' the hollow tube made as it hit the seat through the speakers.

"And if that had been say, a bomb or weapon a crook had been swinging around..." Julian started.

"Not bad, Bubba," Nash said, as the probe flew back in. "That's why I will DEFINITELY be talking to the Mayor about a few of your cars!"

-

Halliwell Manor.

Later that night

Only a few scraps of the candle-lit dinner remained on the dining room table - a heavenly meal, made thanks to Piper's superb cooking. The pair of long candles themselves had long since been blown out. As the two people that had enjoyed the meal were now in the sitting room, furiously making out on the couch.

"Mmmm..." Cordelia said between kisses. "I can't tell you how much I've missed this!"

"I-" Kiss. "Couldn't-" Kiss. "Agree-" Kiss. "More!" Xander replied, as he slid on top of her, and wrapped up in each other's arms - the young couple seriously began to suck face.

Cordelia felt like she was almost in a state of bliss, as she held Xander tightly. And somewhere deep within the primitive reptilian part of her brain, she wanted to completely claim her man - mind, body and soul.

Forever.

The thing was, the former Chase girl disliked hypocrisy in anyone - herself included. Ever since Xander had returned she'd known what she wanted, so there was no point anymore in pretending that this was something it wasn't.

And feeling the sudden bulge in Xander's pants, Cordy inwardly grinned - as she realized that he wanted it as much as she did...

Things were starting to heat up, and Cordelia was just about to say "Bedroom..." - but then she hissed slightly, as Xander let go and got up from the couch to throw another log onto the fire in the fireplace. (Damn you, Xander Harris! Get your sorry ass back here right NOW!)

"Didn't want the fire to go out," he said with a half-smile. (Sorry, Cor, but I can't make it TOO easy for you...)

Ms. Halliwell looked at him with equal levels of annoyance, amusement and wanting. "Well, hey! I'd say we have plenty of heat on our own!"

The young man smirked slightly as he thought of what the night would bring, as he made his way back to her. (That we do, Cordy-)

However, Xander never made it the short distance.

A hand with rotting flesh snaked out of the shadows, and grabbed him by the right shoulder. Harris didn't even have time to register it, before he was airborne.

"Xander!" Cordelia screamed as she watched him fly through the air and nail the far wall, shattering several picture frames on impact - along with leaving a good-sized dent. He landed with a hard thud on the floor, and was very much knocked out cold.

Ms. Halliwell herself didn't have more than a second to flip herself over the back of the couch, as a blue energy ball from the demon impacted on the spot where she was sitting.

"Who the hell are you!" Cordelia screamed at the rotting flesh patrol, as she tried to think of something. Being the only Charmed One without an offensive power sucked, big-time.

"I'm your death, witch!" the demon yelled back at her, as he let an energy ball fly at the end of the couch where Cordelia was peeking out. She pulled back just in time; the energy ball shattered the end table, and the lamp on top of it.

"Look," the brunette called out, as she spotted one of Xander's zat guns lying in the wreckage of the end table - too far out of reach. "We were kind of in the middle of something here! Any chance you could come back and try to kill us in the morning? Say, around eight-ish?"

The demon's answer was to send several rapid-fire energy balls through the back of the couch, one coming close enough to singe her hair. "Come out now, witch, and face your death! Or else, I'll kill this one!"

"No!" Cordelia yelled, getting to her feet. "Don't you touch him!" And before she knew what she was doing, the former cheerleader had let loose a stream of fire from her right hand.

The demon, although surprised, easily avoided it. "Time to die!" he said to the stunned witch.

The front door opened at that moment. "Sorry, guys," Prue said quickly, coming into the manor. "I forgot my-"

Seeing the situation, the eldest sister acted on instinct just like the youngest had, as her powers stopped the fireball in mid-air. And turned it right back at the demon. The evil thing screamed as the energy crackled around it, causing it to vanquish.

"Cordelia!" she yelled, as Cordy ran to check on Xander. "What the hell happened?"

The brunette girl didn't answer her right away. She started checking her guy over; and the woman grimaced at the blood on his left arm. Xander had landed on a shard of glass from one of the frames, and a small but good-sized gash was thus evident.

Without thinking, Cordy tore off her expensive blouse sleeve and used it as a makeshift tourniquet to stop the bleeding. (Come on, Dweeb Boy, work with me here-)

"Are you okay!" Prue demanded.

"Yeah..." Cordelia told her finally. "But, uh, remember when I said the past me had shot fire from her hand?"

Prue just nodded, as she pulled out her cell phone to call for an ambulance for Xander. Her eyes then went wide, as she followed her sister's gaze - to the scorch marks on the far wall.

-

Rose Heart Hospital, San Francisco, California.

A short time later

Xander looked up, after inspecting his new stitches. "Hey, you do good work doc!"

"Why thank you, Mr. Harris," the older male doctor said, before he closed the curtain around him and his patient.

"Is there something else, doc?" Xander asked.

The M.D. sat on a chair across from the gurney Xander was on. "I just wanted to talk to you for a moment. Mr. Harris, I've seen your medical file - your entire medical file. From Sunnydale..."

"Oh," Xander said slowly, already knowing what the doctor wanted to talk about.

-

"He doesn't have a concussion," another emergency room doctor told Cordelia, Prue and the just-arrived Leo Wyatt in the waiting area. "However, he did require a few stitches from falling down the stairs that way."

"Can we see him?" Cordelia quickly asked.

"In just a few minutes. Dr. Swann is with him right now."

"Thank you, doctor," Prue told him. And as soon as he was gone, she hugged her sister. "See, he's okay. We're all okay!"

Cordelia nodded lightly, looking down. "The demon could have-"

"But he didn't," Prue told her.

Cordy wiped a few tears away, before glancing at Leo. "Does that fire thing mean that I'm evil now?"

The now-human male shook his head. "No. The only power that you can definitely assume to be demonic in origin, are energy balls. You may have just simply regained it, somehow. Do you think you could do it again?"

Cordy looked at her hand, "No...maybe. I don't know."

"Your powers have always been tied to your emotions," Leo told them. "When the demon threatened to hurt Xander, you must have gotten a rush and done it out of instinct."

Cordelia just shook her head along with what he'd said. "If that's what it takes, then I don't want to try testing it again anytime soon." She then blurted out, "God, what is it with me lately?"

"What do you mean?" Leo asked her.

"Oh, come on!" Cordelia told him. "Xander and I FINALLY get back together a week ago, and every time we're about to get...intimate...some damn demon or another attacks! Or we have to rush off to save an innocent. I swear, it's like the supernatural world has it in for me never to get laid!"

Prue could understand her sister's rant. Several times, her life had had to be put on hold to do the work they were destined for. (But at least Cordy's guy knows all about the big W word...)

-

Halliwell Manor Kitchen.

Thursday, January 18th 2001

8:35 a.m.

The next morning found Xander, Cordy, Prue, and Piper sitting at the kitchen table. Prue was sipping coffee while reading the metro section of the newspaper, while the other three had various brands of cereal in front of them.

"So, Xander," Cordelia asked her boyfriend. "What did Dr. Swann talk to you about, anyway?"

"Nothing important," was the young man's quick reply.

"Oh no you don't!" Cordelia said firmly. "Spill! Because I know it's not an embarrassing sexual disease..." Then she stopped, remembering who - in her mind - his only sexual partner was. "Oh God, it ISN'T some sorta embarrassing sexual disease - is it!"

"No," Xander replied. "It's nothing. Now can we just drop it?"

Cordelia shook her head, as she crossed her arms and just stared at him from her seat across the table. (I said spill, mister!)

"Oh please, Cor," Xander said, annoyed. "The annoyed stare thing won't work. This ain't high school no more!"

"Maybe not," Cordelia admitted. "But Xander, I have girlfriend privileges again. And so I can withhold some things, if you don't answer me."

"Come on," Xander smirked. "What are you going to do, kick me out of my room to sleep on the couch?"

"No..." Cordelia said, leaning in a little. "But I know for sure of one bed you won't be sleeping in, in the foreseeable future!"

That sentence caused the other two women at the table to silently lock eyes, the same thought going through their heads. (Yeah, right. The way she's been talking, she's going to burst soon if she doesn't get any!)

"You wouldn't..." Xander said, unsure.

"Just try me," Cordelia said, standing firm.

"Alright, fine," Xander sighed in defeat, as he finished off the last of his Cap'n Crunch. "The doc just wanted to talk to me about my many hospital visits. He thought he'd seen a...a pattern."

"But we're not there all that often," Piper said. "I mean yeah, with Leo out of the healing business now, we might need a few more trips there than before - but you weren't here for all that fun with my wacky tropical disease. So why-"

"No," Xander said tightly. "He got his hands on my medical file from Sunnydale."

"Oh," Cordelia commented. "Well, yeah, we all had some hospital time back then. He want to know about your broken arm from the Acathla thing?"

Xander didn't answer right away. He looked to all the occupants of the table, before making up his mind. (What the hell, there's no reason to hide it anymore. That part of my life is over now.) "No, Cordy. He wanted to talk about the records from my childhood. And we're talking years before either of us started helping Buffy out with the Slayage."

"Your childhood?" Cordelia asked, surprised. "When were you ever in the hospital, when we were kids?"

"Example? When I had my first broken arm," Harris told her. "I was eight."

"But you didn't have a broken arm when we were-" Cordelia started, but was stopped by her better half.

"Cordy, listen to me. You didn't know, because we didn't hang out in the same circles back then. I mean, I wasn't exactly on your mom's list for play dates with you; we'd been bickering nonstop from ever since we were six years old, remember?"

"So, what happened? You fell out of a tree, or something?" Prue asked, hoping that was what Xander was going to say.

"No," Xander admitted. "It was - well, a few days after my dad lost his job at the factory, and...and when he started to drink. He took it the wrong way that I was such close friends with Willow. See, her parents had started to do quite well with their practices..." He sighed and just said it. "From what I can remember, he was drunk and pissed off that I was spending so much time over at her house. So he came up to me and..."

"Xander?" Cordelia asked quietly. Her look of before was replaced with one of sadness. "Are you saying your father used to-"

"Yeah, he did," Xander told them with a shrug. "Supposedly, it was just an accident the first time. My mother didn't want it to get around, so they made something up at the hospital. They fought about it and after it happened again and again, well - good old mom didn't want to deal anymore. So she started to drink too."

"Xander, I..." Prue said with both shock and sympathy on her face.

"No it's okay," Harris told them. "That was a long time ago, and it's all over now." He got up and put his bowl in the sink. "It's all in the past, and my opinion - best left forgotten," the man finished up, before he left the room.

Cordelia of course got up and went after him, mere moments later.

-

415 Magazine.

Later that day

The band 'Four Star Mary' was getting their promotional photos taken, while one of the photography execs was checking over Prue's portfolio.

"Everything is shot in digital now, you know," Mr. Corso told her, as he flipped the pages of 8 x 10 pictures.

"Yeah, I'm equipped," Prue said, remembering the very large bill for all her new gear.

"Oh, I like this one!" Mr. Corso said, as he looked at a black and white of a little girl playing on a beach. "What lens did you use?"

"24f8," she responded.

"Shutter speed?"

"125," Ms. Halliwell answered, as an assistant handed Corso a copy of one of the band's just-taken pics. The man shook his head. "Okay, lose the kicker," he told his assistant. "Let the shuttle play there."

The other man nodded and left, as Mr. Corso closed Prue's portfolio. "Impressive."

"So, does that mean I got the job?" Prue asked, trying not to sound too eager.

"Based on your portfolio, yes," Corso said - before he picked up a sheet and looked it over. "Based on your resume, no. Took a detour shutter bugging, did you?"

Prue didn't miss a beat. "Mr. Corso, I've changed careers, I'm not hiding that. But with all due respect, if you like my work - that should be enough. I mean - you're hiring me, not my resume."

Mr. Corso mused over her words for a moment. "You want a shot?" He picked up a rather unflattering headshot of a blond woman. "Get me a better one of Maggie Murphy. Word is she might be featured in our St. Paddy's day issue, if her situation doesn't change in the next two months..."

He handed her the picture. "Something about being the unluckiest woman in San Francisco. And she's Irish. Down the hall where they do the writing, they call that irony. Address is on the back. Hmm, and funny thing is up until three months ago, she was like a saint. Helping the homeless, volunteering, charity...then like overnight, everything started going bad for her. Real bad."

Corso held up her portfolio, before giving it back to the witch. "I want what you have in here, Prue. Artistic...soulful. I wanna see the inner Maggie in your photograph, and I wanna see it by five o'clock today...or don't bother coming back."

(Great, no pressure there!) Prue thought but said, "Thank you."

-

413 North Fergus Avenue, San Francisco, California.

A short while later

The five-story apartment building's roof door opened to let out a timid-looking blond woman. It was Maggie Murphy, and she did NOT look good at all. Her eyes were red from crying, and she cautiously made her way to the edge of the roof.

Looking over the edge at the tiny people on the sidewalk below, Maggie said to herself, "What am I doing? This isn't me..."

But being non-magical, she couldn't possibly detect the bald demon behind her. One who was wearing a completely black suit. Which was a trademark signature of the mortal enemies of the whitelighters; a darklighter.

When the demon spoke it used Maggie's voice, "Yes it is. It's all my fault."

Maggie's face changed as the thoughts entered her mind, and just as before she believed them to be her own. "The car accident, the fire, my brother's death. I hurt the ones I love."

"I hurt the ones I love," Maggie repeated out loud to herself.

The demon spoke again in her head. "I have to stop it."

Maggie sobbed, "It has to stop. I don't deserve to live."

"This is who I really am. Cursed," the darklighter added.

Maggie spoke it at the same time: "I'm cursed."

She slowly climbed up onto the ledge. The few people on the sidewalk under her looked up when one man called out, "Hey, look up there!"

One of them got on his cell phone to call the police. Seeing how his work was done, the darklighter black-orbed unseen to the crowd below, to watch Maggie fall.

As the crowd grew bigger, Prue showed up in her car across the street. Surprised to see a crowd, she was then stunned to see a woman on the ledge. The eldest Halliwell looked from the woman that she could just make out, to the picture in her hand. "Maggie?"

Shaking her head furiously Prue then said, "No!" Her head slumped down, as her body remained standing next to her car.

But Prue's astral self appeared on the roof, with the potential whitelighter. "Maggie, don't. Just wait..."

The other woman spun around and started. Through her tears she demanded, "Where did you come from? How do you know me?"

"It doesn't matter," Prue said calmly, as she moved a step closer and extended her hand. "Just step away from the edge, and take my hand."

Maggie recoiled in fear. "Stay away from me!"

But Prue remained calm. "Maggie, please, I can help you."

"Nobody can help me," the blond sobbed harder.

Prue moved a tad closer. "Maggie, this isn't the answer."

Maggie looked at this woman, who she suspected would be the last one she ever talked to. "All I wanted to do was help people. Now all I do is hurt them!" Before Prue could respond, the sound of sirens below startled Maggie. She lost her balance, when she looked to see an ambulance and a patrol car pulled up.

The crowd yelled out in panic when she fell, then stopped. Prue had run over and grabbed hold of her hand, her other one holding a piece of pipe to keep herself from falling. "Maggie!"

"Let me go, please!" Maggie pleaded with her would-be savior.

Prue groaned at the strain. "Come on, I can't hold on much longer..." But less than two seconds later Maggie's grip on Prue's hand slipped, and she fell.

Prue's astral form returned to her body in the same instant. Looking up from the street again, she was instantly horrified. "No!" Using her powers, Ms. Halliwell slowed Maggie down mid-fall, and pushed her over the large canopy over the door to the building.

Maggie bounced on the canopy like a trampoline, and fell the small distance to the grass with only a minor bruise. As the EMTs and the crowd rushed to her, she saw Prue across the street. (Oh my God...)

After the two locked eyes, Prue got into her car and quickly pulled away. The oldest Halliwell not wanting to risk the questions, if Maggie talked about her to the police or EMTs.

The blond watched her drive away. "Wait..."

However, she was cut off as the EMTs started checking her out for injuries.

Off to the side of the crowd, the darklighter just groaned in annoyance. "Well, of all the luck..." He shook his head after one last look at Maggie, before he black-orbed out.

-

Halliwell Manor Kitchen.

A few minutes later

Piper was writing a letter at the counter as Cordelia came in via the back door, dropping her backpack on the table. "Hey, I thought you had inventory at the club."

Piper sighed. "I do."

"So then, what are you doing here?" her younger sister asked, as she grabbed some bottled water out of the fridge.

"Trying to figure out what to tell Dan," Piper admitted.

"About what, honey?" Cordy asked, coming over.

"Leo."

"Oh, that!" Cordelia looked at the letter. "Wait-wait-wait, you're not actually writing him a Dear John letter - are you?"

"No, of course not!" Piper said quickly. "He deserves more than that. A lot more, but it's just hard. I don't wanna hurt him. Dan's a great guy and he's been really good to me, and we've never really had any huge problems-"

Cordelia cocked her head a tad. "Besides the huge problem that you really love Leo, and he really loves you? Plus, he gave up his immortality for you..."

"I know," Piper said. "Which is obviously good for us - but I don't know, lately he's just seemed a bit - restless."

The youngest Halliwell wiggled a finger at her. "You're thinking too much again. Stop trying to predict the future, alright? That's my job! Just follow your heart, Piper. Only good things will happen, I promise."

Piper nodded, realizing Cordy was right. As she started to tear up the half-finished letter she asked, "Did you talk to Xander?"

"Yeah," Cordelia said. "He and I had a talk about it, before I left for school." Shaking her head she sighed, "Back when we dated the first time around, I never wondered too much about why he didn't ever want me over at his house. I mean, I just thought it was because his dad was drunk all the time. Not because that asshole abused him! I was thinking about it all morning during class, you know, and I can't believe I missed all the indicators-"

"No one can know everything," Piper told her.

"Yeah, but I should have known at least that much!" Cordelia said angrily. "Unfortunately, it's sad but true to say I was too busy getting pissed at him about his clothes, or his jokes, or how much time he spent with Buffy and Willow..." She looked at her sister, as Cordy put her right hand over her heart and raised her left hand. "But Scout's honor. This time I, Cordelia Halliwell, swear that I will pay more attention to my boyfriend."

"Why, is Cordelia Halliwell growing up some?" Piper teased, before she grabbed her purse. "Alright, I'm going back to the club. Love you."

"Love you too!" Cordelia called after her as she left.

-

SIU HQ, San Francisco, California.

Shortly before noon

Daryl and Maggie walked down the gangplank and were about to enter the glass doors to the station, when she stopped. "Miss Murphy?" Daryl asked.

Maggie looked at him, slightly terrified. "I-I can't go in there."

"You don't really have a choice," the man told her gently.

"Am I under arrest?"

"No," Inspector Morris told her. "But there's some paperwork we have to get started on."

Still very timid Maggie asked, "Are there guns in there?"

Daryl nodded. "It's a police station."

"They might go off somehow," She saw the doubt in his eyes, "I mean, things like that happen around me - and I don't want anybody to get hurt."

"I'm more concerned about you hurting yourself," Daryl said to her. "Come on, nothing's gonna happen." He put his hand on her back, gently pushing her into the station and towards his desk.

"You don't understand..." Maggie said, looking around the large area.

Daryl kept his voice calm. "Trust me."

"You can't help me," Maggie insisted. "Nobody can."

As they sat at his desk, Daryl said, "We're gonna find somebody who can. First, you have to answer a few questions about what happened this morning."

Maggie just looked down. "I don't know what happened. It was like a bad dream, only it wasn't. Voices in my head. Everything spinning."

"Is there somebody you want to call?" Daryl asked her. "Family, friend?"

"No, no, no," Maggie insisted quickly, shaking her head hard. "Keep them away from me, I'm not safe to be around. I shouldn't even be here. I shouldn't be alive, and if it hadn't have been for that angel-"

Morris looked at her, surprised. "Excuse me?"

Maggie wiped her tears away as she spoke. "She just appeared out of thin air, when I was on the rooftop. She reached out her hand, and then when I was falling - it was like something slowed me down, like she guided me onto that canopy."

"The angel?" the Inspector asked.

Maggie nodded firmly "Yes, she saved me."

Morris leaned in, not liking where he thought this was going. "Help me out here. What exactly did this woman look like?"

-

Halliwell Manor.

A few minutes later

Prue came in through the front door, carrying her camera bag. Cordelia came into the foyer from the sitting room where she had been watching TV, "So, how'd it go?"

"What?" Prue asked, as she set her bag down on the small table and looked through it.

"The interview," Cordelia asked. "Did you get the job?"

"Yeah, I did," Prue said.

Cordy noticed the silent 'but' in her voice. "Prue, are you okay?"

Prudence Halliwell looked back up. "There was a woman that I'm supposed to photograph, but when I got to her apartment - she was on the roof, ready to jump."

The shock was clear on her sister's face. "Oh my God, she didn't..."

"Yeah, actually, she did," Prue told her. "Luckily, I was able to break her fall with my powers."

"She is SO lucky you got there in time!"

Prue shook her head. "I keep on thinking that if I'd been even a minute late..."

"But you weren't. You were supposed to be there in time," Cordelia said very firmly. "You were supposed to save that woman's life, I believe that."

Prue looked at her. "You're really into this whole destiny thing nowadays, aren't you?"

Cordelia just shrugged. "I didn't used to be. But with all the stuff we've seen, and all the innocents we've saved? Not to mention finally getting my honey back? How can I NOT believe?"

The cordless phone ringing cut off Prue's reply. "Hello?"

Daryl's voice came through the phone. #Hi, Prue. You weren't by any chance outside 413 North Fergus Avenue this morning, were you?#

Prue didn't know if she wanted to say yes. "Uh, why?"

#Well, I've got a Maggie Murphy here. She claims an angel saved her this morning,# Daryl told her. #An angel that, by her description, bears no resemblance to Della Reese.#

"But does resemble me," Prue replied.

Morris answered at once, #Yeah, bingo. Of course, everyone around here thinks she's nuts.#

"Um, Daryl, is Maggie alright?"

#That's not for me to say,# Morris replied. #I have to send her over to Psych for mandatory 72-hour observation-#

Prue heard a crash in the background, and what sounded like Maggie repeating over and over, "I'm so sorry!"

Daryl went on, #Poor woman, it's like she's snake-bit or something. Listen, Prue, you better stay clear of here so she doesn't ID you. I'll keep you posted, okay? Bye.#

But as she hung up the phone, Prue made up her mind. She was like she was with every innocent the Charmed Ones had to save. Thus she just grabbed her bag, and moved for the door.

"Where are you going?" Cordelia wondered.

"I'm gonna go see Maggie," Prue told her. "Something tells me that I may have stopped her doing something stupid, but I certainly didn't save her."

Cordelia grabbed her keys from the key rack. "Well, I'll come with you. Maybe something from my psych class can help..."

-

P3 club, San Francisco, California.

The same time

Piper Halliwell was standing facing the bar, while her bartender Leo Wyatt was on his knees with the boxes that had just been delivered. "That can't be right," Piper commented as she checked her clipboard. "How many swizzle sticks?"

Leo's faraway answer of "Who's counting?" caused Piper to look down, to see him staring at her legs.

Busted, the guy quickly looked back to the boxes in front of him. "Uh, I don't know, a lot. You think you might have over-ordered?"

Piper tried to ignore it, even though deep down - she didn't really mind him looking. "No, um, they over-shipped..."

Leo started to pass the boxes to her, as she put them on the counter. Unexpectedly, one of the boxes' badly-sealed bottom broke, and the red plastic sticks fell all over Leo.

"Oh!" Piper said, surprised as Leo picked a stick out of his hair.

"My fault," the bartender told her. "I should have remembered how flimsy those boxes are-"

Piper knelt down, and started helping him pick them up. After a moment, she felt her ex looking at her. "What?"

He at first tried to play it off, "Nothing..." But then Leo blurted out, "Piper, are you mad at me?"

Ms. Halliwell instantly dismissed that, despite having been acting rather weird with her bartender/former boyfriend/whitelighter. "No, don't be ridiculous. Why would I be mad at you?"

The man shrugged, "I don't know, that's why I'm asking. What is it?"

The witch looked VERY uncomfortable. "It's just, um, Dan."

Leo instantly felt a chill. "Oh. Never mind, sorry I asked."

He got up and was about to go wipe the bar, when Piper said uncertainly, "Um, he's-he's going to be..." She broke off, and stood up herself. "He's going to be very upset when he finds out...you're the one that I really love."

The former angel couldn't believe it. (Did I actually hear her say that?) "Yeah?"

Piper said softly, "Yeah."

For this man, it was as if he'd gotten his whitelighter wings all over again. He took Piper in his arms, and they kissed.

And kissed.

And kissed...

But then Piper broke it off, "Mmm, no wait, um, we can't do this."

Leo didn't get it. "But you just said..."

The flustered nightclub owner stammered, "I-I-I know, but I really need to talk to Dan first."

The guy just nodded, accepting that. (This is gonna be hard for her, doing the right thing and all. But it couldn't be any other way, I guess. Dear God, I love her so much...)

-

SIU HQ, San Francisco, California

The darklighter black-orbed into the police station, unseen by the normal humans working there. Taking in his new surroundings, he transformed his dark suit into a police officer's uniform.

After that, he phased into the station fully and took a seat on the edge of an empty desk. He absently flipped through a file folder from the desk as he kept an eye on Maggie, who was sitting on a bench with a female cop.

Daryl walked down the metal stairs, to where the two women were sitting. Holding up a styrofoam cup he told Miss Murphy, "I brought you some coffee."

Maggie released a small smile at the kindness. "Thanks."

Daryl gave her a small smile back, before he turned to the uniform officer. "I'll take it from here, thanks."

"Yes, sir," the policewoman said, getting up. She gave Maggie's shoulder a squeeze, before going back to her duties.

When Inspector Morris sat down next to her, Maggie looked back up. "I saw her, you know. The angel, she saved me..." the poor woman said, almost pleading. Most, including the policewoman who'd just left, didn't believe her.

Knowing what he did about Prue, Daryl told her in a friendly voice, "I believe you, Maggie, really I do."

The cop lifted the coffee cup to her - and as she reached for it, Maggie accidentally spilled it on his lap. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she said quickly, Daryl jumping in pain as the hot liquid spilled onto his pants.

"I'm okay," he told the Irishwoman, not wanting to cause her more grief. "I'm just gonna go wipe this off." Daryl turned to head over to the bathroom - when her voice stopped him.

"Maybe you should just stay away from me," Maggie said to the man, not wanting anything more to happen to yet another nice person only trying to help her.

"It takes more than spilled coffee to get rid of me," Morris told her firmly, before heading over to the men's room.

By chance when Daryl goes into the restroom, Prue and Cordelia came in through the station's main doors. "Xander was right," Cordelia commented, after looking around at the unusual station. "This place IS a bit funky. Hard to believe they held rave parties in a future police station..."

Prue nudged her little sister to get her attention. Farther into the station, Maggie held her hands together as she looked down at the deck. "That's her," the eldest Halliwell said.

Cordelia looked towards her older sister, wondering, "Any idea what you're gonna say to her about the whole angel thing? I mean, anything that won't get us on a supernatural episode of 'Unsolved Mysteries'?"

Prue just lightly shrugged that question off. "I'm not really worried about that, I'm more worried about her." With a look to her sister she added, "I've been thinking. Maybe I could write a spell?"

Cordy perked up "A spell for what?"

"Help put a little good luck in her life," Prue said.

As much as she didn't want to, Cordelia disagreed with the idea. "That's really sweet - but you can't keep using your powers to save her, y'know?"

"I know," Prue sighed, looking at Maggie. "But maybe it'll help her turn things around, make her see that life's worth living."

Maggie leaned back into the bench and her feet slid out a bit, right as a cop was walking by her. The officer tripped on her feet, and fell right into a full water cooler. And his impact knocked it over, causing a large spill to short out several computers all plugged into the same surge protector.

Several cops yelled in anger, as the PC's they were using shorted out. But no one seemed to notice the darklighter trying to hold back his laughter, as he watched the scene...

As he watched the tripped cop get very annoyed with Maggie. "Thanks a lot, lady!"

Maggie Murphy just fell back into her seat, as many in the station eyed her warily. She then buried her head in her hands, as a few tears fell.

"There, you see?" Prue asked Cordelia. "I have to do something!" Glancing towards her more spell-wise sister she asked, "Alright, I'm gonna need your help. How do I do this?"

Cordelia told her honestly, "You don't need my help. It's your connection. It just has to come from the heart."

Prue took a deep breath. "Alright, here goes..." She made up a spell on the spot, "From this moment on your pain is erased, your bad luck as well, enjoy your good luck Maggie, you're free from this hell."

As soon as she finished it, Prue felt something and looked down. Two tiny pea-sized white balls of magic shot out of her hands and headed for Maggie, to the young woman's amazement.

"Whoa, cool!" Cordelia said, as the orbs made contact with Maggie and she seemed to glow for a moment. The two Charmed sisters suddenly noticed that no one else had seemed to see this; the 'muggle effect', as Cordelia called it these days, seemed to be at work again.

The look on Maggie's face and her body language seemed to change instantly. From sad and crying to carefree and happy, at the flip of a switch. (What...what's happened to me? Why do I suddenly feel like this?)

Daryl came back, unknowing of what had happened, and slipped on the now-wet floor. But Maggie suddenly caught him, before he fell and broke his ankle.

"Thanks," Morris said, as she let him go.

Maggie looked at the black man as if she'd just won the lottery. "Did I just do that? I mean, help you?"

"Yeah, you did," Daryl said simply, as they sat back down. "You okay?"

A little lightheaded at the weight suddenly being lifted from her, Maggie just nodded. "Yeah. I think I am."

On the other side of the barge, Cordelia couldn't help but smile at the look on Maggie's face. "Looks like her luck is already changing."

Prue had a grin as well. "Let's get outta here. Daryl can handle it for now."

They turned and began to move towards the doors, not noticing the shocked and angry look the darklighter was giving them. "Not so fast..." the demonic agent whispered, as he let fly one of his own bits of magic.

And while Prue's spell had been white, this spell's energy was totally black. The dark magic headed for its intended target, the oldest Halliwell, but luckily for Prue - it was intercepted.

The darklighter was angered even more, as a man seemed to shimmer out of nowhere and grab the spell with his hand. Prue and Cordelia left through the doors without a look back, missing the event entirely.

"How did you...?" the darklighter started to say.

But he was cut off by the new man in a light-colored suit, "We have to talk."

-

The SIU pier parking lot.

A few minutes later

"I gotta tell you, for your first spell - you packed quite a punch," Cordelia told Prue, as she got in the passenger side of her sister's convertible.

"You told me to speak from the heart, I did," Prue responded.

As she buckled her seat belt Cordelia said, "Still, y'know, it took me a few times before my spells actually worked."

"Really?" Prue asked, surprised. Her younger sister was the one who'd had lots more practice at this. When Cordy just nodded, Prue got a little grin. "Well, it must be my lucky day."

-

An abandoned warehouse nearby.

The same time

The still-angry darklighter was demanding to know what was going on. "Why have you-"

"Calm down, my friend," Cole Turner told the lower-rung agent of evil. "Your talents can be better used on another target. There's a-"

"No," the darklighter said, interrupting the lawyer. "Who the devil are you? No mortal could have stopped my spell like that. Not many demons could, either."

"Oh, that?" Cole said, sounding bored. "That was just a little trick I picked up, back in the 20's. Only works on lower end magic." Without waiting to hear the question re-asked, Cole changed into his demon form.

The darklighter looked up in mute surprise at the red and black demon, now a foot taller than he was. "Belthazor?"

"You know of me," the now-deeper voice of the half-demon said.

"Who doesn't, in the underworld?" the darklighter commented. "Although I haven't heard much about you, as of late."

"Well, I had to set up my new mortal life," Belthazor said, as he shifted back into his human persona. "That's the trouble with the humans, they only live for so long before they age and die. I had a good life set up for myself, before I had to fake my mortal death and come here."

"Why DID you come here?"

"The sun, sand, a few young mortal women in bikinis?" Cole remarked, amused. "But now that I know the Charmed Ones are here..."

"The witches?" the darklighter gasped. "I didn't...are you sure? There were only two of them-"

"Yes, well, you haven't met Piper yet," Cole answered. "The middle sister."

Now the darklighter was very confused. "Then why did you stop my spell? The witch would have killed herself in a day-"

Cole didn't think that was true. "The Charmed Ones are more powerful than normal run-of-the-mill witches, you idiot. They would have picked up on it. Or their whitelighter would have." He smirked a little at the darklighter, as it heard the name of his antithetical counterpart. "But your new target..."

"I don't take orders from you!" the bald man said angrily.

Sighing theatrically, Cole riposted, "No, normally you wouldn't. But do you know who it is that's working to eliminate the Charmed Ones?"

The darklighter's voice gained some respect. "The Triad."

"That's right," Cole said with a sneer. "And any order they pass on, is just the same as if it had come from-"

"The Source," the darklighter whispered.

"Correct," Cole said at the name of the head demon in the underworld. "And as I said, that spell wouldn't have succeeded on the Charmed Ones; eventually they would have seen through it. You can't attack them directly, so you must attack those around them. A loved one."

"Their whitelighter?" the darklighter asked, liking the idea of taking on his counterpart.

"No," Cole said simply. He held up the palm of his hand, and in a tiny ball of flame an image began to take shape. An image from Cole's own memories.

The image of Cordelia Halliwell lying on the couch in the manor, with her head on the lap of one Alexander Harris.

"Him."

-

San Francisco, California.

About 30 minutes later

Xander was walking down the street, after his car decided it didn't want to work anymore, towards a new bookstore that he had heard about. It was a bit outside of his normal haunts in his new home city, but every bookstore was worth a look in his life nowadays.

You never knew what you might find, in the way of an occult section. And what the hell, he was already in the area.

As he turned the corner, Xander didn't notice the bald man in the suit at the sidewalk café. He did, however, notice the sudden chill he just got. "What?" the young man asked himself, as he looked around.

Finding nothing that would have caused the feeling or creep him out, Harris turned and went into the store. The darklighter just stared after him in confusion, uncertain about...something he'd felt, when cursing the young man the same way he'd intended to curse Prue.

-

Bay Area Books Music, San Francisco, California.

A few minutes later

Up on the second floor, Inspector Rachel McCabe walked over to her partner Officer Cassidy Bridges - who was checking out the World War Two books. "The World At War?" she asked, reading the title.

Cassidy flipped to one particular chapter in the thick book. "It's a new edition." She pointed to an old picture of a good-looking man in a uniform.

"Nick Bridges?" Rachel asked. "Your grandfather?"

"Yep," Cassidy said with a lot of pride. "After about 50 years, he finally got his Navy Cross a while back. And it's now in the history books."

"What did he do?"

Cassidy leaned on the banister, overlooking the main floor of the store. "During the Battle of the Atlantic he was helping treat an injured gunner, when he says he heard an engine noise. He looked up, and saw a kamikaze heading right for his ship's bridge. He grabbed the guns and started firing, shot the plane down just in time."

"Whoa," Rachel said, amazed. "But why is something like that getting into the record books NOW?"

"Apparently, he was nominated for the medal by the ship's captain. But Grandpa was seeing an admiral's 18-year-old daughter," Cassidy told her with a grin. "So that horse's ass squashed the nomination, and kept them apart."

"Kind of harsh," Rachel commented.

"Yeah," Cassidy responded. "But Grandpa says that if he had kept seeing her, then my dad and I might not have ever been born - so it all worked out okay in the end."

Rachel was going to say something else about it, when she noticed someone down on the first level. "Hey, isn't that Harris down by the magazines?"

Cassidy tucked the book under her arm, as she looked down. "Yeah. Guess so."

"Well?" Rachel asked her partner in perplexity. "Are you going to go talk to him, or not? I know you like him-"

"No point," Cassidy said quickly. "Daryl told me today, that he's gotten back together with his old high school girlfriend-"

"That's exactly the point!" Rachel interrupted at once. "That's why you shouldn't wait to see..." she then trailed off, as it happened.

Xander Harris turned away from the magazines, and tripped. As he started to fall he tried to grab the rack and missed, grabbing a young woman's breast instead. (Crap...)

"Hey!" the college girl screamed, as she slapped him.

"No, I didn't..." Xander tried to get out before he was then shoved back into the plastic magazine racks by the girl's boyfriend. "Asshole!"

Unfortunately Xander's impact knocked loose something, and all the racks started to fall to the floor in rapid succession.

-

P3 club, San Francisco, California.

2:00 p.m.

Leo was counting the glasses hanging on the rack, while Piper was checking over the list. "Damn," the man said softly. "Piper, I'm going crazy here!"

She looked up at him, slightly surprised. "We're almost done."

The former handyman turned to face her. "That's not what I mean. Look, you can't come in here and tell me what you just told me - and act like nothing's changed. Everything's changed!"

Piper could understand where he was coming from. "I know, believe me, I know. But Dan is out of town, and until he comes back..."

"When?" Leo asked, hoping he wasn't sounding too demanding. "When's he coming back?"

"Next Thursday," Piper said lightly.

Leo's eyes went a tad wide at that. "A week? Can't you call him or something?" At the look on her face, he shrugged. "It's just, you know, I-I've been waiting for this, for us, for so long. I don't wanna wait any longer."

Piper's reply was cut off, as Prue's voice came down the steps leading to the outside world. "Piper? Leo? You guys here?"

"Prue?" The middle Halliwell sister asked, as she saw her two sisters come down the stairs from the entrance. Both had pleasant smiles on their faces. "I didn't think you guys were up to anything today-"

"Oh, nothing much," Prue said, as she sat on one of the bar stools. "Just that I got to my photo assignment, right as she was about ready to kill herself."

"What!" Piper and Leo shouted at the same time.

"Don't worry," she told them. "I used my powers to break her fall. Then Cordy and I went over to the SIU, after Daryl called."

"Yeah," Cordelia chimed in, putting her arm around her older sister. "Thing is though that one quick good luck spell later, poor old Maggie is suddenly right back on her feet. I gotta say, our big sis is turning out to be quite the spellcaster!"

The youngest witch was then going to make another comment, before she noticed something, "Ah, Piper?" she said with a grin. "Your lipstick's smeared..."

"It is?" Piper asked as she quickly blushed, and Prue and Cordy started looking between her and Leo.

But she was saved from any embarrassing sisterly questions, when Prue's cell phone rang. "Hello?" She walked over to the other end of the club to talk on the phone. "Yeah, Mr. Corso, there was a problem with Maggie..."

Cordelia tilted her head towards Prue. "She got the magazine gig. They told her to photograph this girl named Maggie Murphy."

Leo looked at her in mild surprise. "The unlucky Maggie Murphy?" Both sisters looked at him, causing him to shrug. "I saw a piece on her on TV. I mean, you'd be surprised how much you can watch the idiot box, when you're not orbing all over the world anymore..."

"Well, anyway," Cordelia said, as she ate a few nuts from a bowl Piper had been munching from. "She's not unlucky anymore. Prue cast a spell to turn her luck around, after she saved her from jumping off a roof. Pretty scary, huh?"

"That's more than scary," Piper told her.

Prue walked back over to them. "Alright - Mr. Corso said that if I don't get that photograph of Maggie, I can kiss my career goodbye." She looks the others. "I mean, how can 'she tried to kill herself' not be a good excuse?"

"Y'know...at least it's a good excuse to go check up on her," Cordelia said with a frown.

"Yeah, I better stop and get gas too," Prue said, as she grabbed her camera bag and made for the stairs.

"Later," Cordelia told Piper and Leo. "Don't want my ride to leave without me. And you two, be good!"

After her sisters left, Piper noticed Leo appeared deep in thought. "Now what?"

Leo looked at her, concerned. "I was just thinking about Maggie Murphy."

"What about her?"

Leo just couldn't get rid of a nagging feeling in his gut. "It's just that she was doing all these good things in her life, and then all of a sudden her own life goes to hell..."

"So..." Piper asked, sitting on the stool Cordelia had vacated.

"What if, you know, all these accidents in her life weren't actually accidents?" he asked her. "I mean, what if something was trying to make her jump?"

Piper didn't like that idea at all. "Something like?"

"A darklighter...maybe?"

-

Bayside Mental Clinic, San Francisco, California.

A short while later

At the clinic, Maggie was back to doing what she did best; helping people. Stuck in here for 72 hours, she was nonetheless helping an old woman down the corridor. "It's okay, Mrs. Idleman. Let's just get you out in the sunlight, and let you see what's going on in the world. That's it, you're doing fine..."

Not far away, Cordelia and Prue were talking to the darklighter - who was now dressed as a doctor. The soulless thing said, "Maggie has made a remarkable turn-around. Severely depressed this morning, now suddenly she's smiling, laughing, helping others. However, I'm afraid her recovery is only temporary."

Prue looked confused, "Why do you say that?"

The darklighter almost purred, "Once you've been on that ledge, Miss Halliwell, you can never forget it. That deep dark place never goes away. It haunts you, beckons you back."

Cordelia had disliked this guy on instinct, from the moment they'd met. (How the hell did YOU ever get a job like this? You're just as bad as Snyder was, at being a high school principal...) "That's not true, doctor. I don't believe that for a second-"

The darklighter tried to restrain his fury, and letting no sign of it appear on his face. "Oh, are you a psychiatrist?"

She didn't back down for an instant. "No, but I still don't think that that's true. Lots of people recover from depression. I've had my own rough patch, and I got through it..."

The doctor/darklighter appeared to shrug. "Be that as it may, I'm afraid it's different for people in Maggie's rather unique situation. She still feels responsible for all the tragedies in her family's life. That pain doesn't just magically go away, you know."

Prue tried to keep the peace, as her sister and the doctor started glaring at one another. "Um, may we see her?"

"Of course," he told them, as he hit the button to open the doors to the patient area.

The duo then walked up to Maggie, who said to the witch, "I hoped you'd come, so I could thank you - and ask you some questions. God, I have so many questions..."

Prue looked nervous, "Maggie, I-I-I think you may have the wrong idea about me."

The potential whitelighter looked at her and shook her head. "You saved my life."

The brunette woman prevaricated, "Yeah, but there was so much going on this morning. I mean, it was really confusing, there were so many people-"

Maggie cut to the chase. "That doesn't change what you did. Who are you?"

Prue sighed. "My name is Prue. This is my sister, Cordelia."

The former cheerleader grinned, "Hi, Maggie."

Maggie smiled at her. "Two angels."

"We're not angels," Prue told her right away.

"Well...a group of freshmen called me that at the beach, back in junior year," Cordelia mused, with a wistful smile. "And, oh! I know an Angel, but that's just his name. 'Cause no way in hell is that guy a-"

Prue lightly hit her sister on her shoulder, shutting her up. "Maggie, how are you feeling? Better, I hope."

Maggie smiled brightly, "Honestly, I feel great. I couldn't be happier."

The meeting then proceeded smoothly, as Prue took some pictures of Maggie. The blond woman babbled on about how she just couldn't get over how everything had changed, suddenly. How she felt like a thousand-pound weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"Oh, I know how that feels!" Cordelia said, before trying to bring up another not-so-nice topic. She hesitantly asked, "Um, Maggie, I was wondering if I could ask you a question?"

The woman nodded, "Sure, anything."

Cordelia flushed a bit. "I'm trying to be a little diplomatic here, Xander thinks I should work on it..." She tried, but failed to change her ways. "Oh, forget it. How the hell did you..."

Maggie sighed, "How did I get on that ledge?"

"Yeah."

Miss Murphy looked lost for a moment. "I really don't know. All I know is, I just wanted it all to stop."

Cordelia looked a little confused. "Wanted what to stop?"

"The voice in my head that kept telling me that I was hurting people, not helping them. That I was causing pain and trouble wherever I went. That it was all my fault. It was like I was cursed."

-

Halliwell Manor Attic.

2: 30 p.m.

Leo and Piper entered the room, and went over to the Book of Shadows. "There's a whole section in here on darklighters..." After flipping a few pages, the brunette woman added sheepishly, "...somewhere."

"Someone really should index this thing," Leo commented, earning a look from Piper. "And Xander was going to, remember? Before he left on his "making sure this is real" trip?"

After she flipped some more pages, Piper asked him, "Are you sure about...this?"

The bartender instantly knew what she was talking about. And so, now it was Leo's turn to give her a look. "Piper, I've been a whitelighter for over 50 years. I know how darklighters work. I've never been more sure of anything," he said, as he took over looking.

"Okay..." the witch said, giving in.

"Piper...we could have some serious trouble, if it's what I'm thinking it is..." Leo told her, as he found the right section in the book. "Damn it!"

He turned the book towards Piper, and she quickly read the section Leo was pointing at. "You have got to be kidding..."

The text read:

Darklighter Variations:

VII Spirit Killer - Forces good souls into suicide through telepathic suggestion. Very dangerous.

-

415 Magazine.

3:00 p.m.

Prue waited, as Mr. Corso looked through the shots of Maggie that she had managed to get. "Not bad," the man told her. "Decent shots in that lighting, and on the clock."

"The background still sucks, though," Prue had to admit.

Corso shook his head. "Nah, besides - the editing guys can always take it out..." He looked up at her. "But I do have to say, I'm surprised."

"So, does that mean I have a job here?" Prue asked lightly.

Mr. Corso nodded, with a quick look back to the photo he'd picked. "I definitely think we can work something out."

-

San Francisco, California.

A while later

Xander was walking along, wanting some time alone to think things over. He had been constantly bumping into people and causing them all sorts of assorted mayhem, on the streets and elsewhere. He also didn't sense the magically hidden darklighter, walking right behind him.

The demon started to talk in Xander's own voice "It was all my fault. I'm responsible. I was a problem child, always mouthing off, constantly getting into trouble..." The thoughts entered Xander's mind, at the same time the demon spoke them.

Now normally, Harris would have dismissed them immediately. However with the darklighter's black magic hitting him at full strength, the thoughts were getting to the young man. Even more when the darklighter kept going...

"I shouldn't have wanted to talk to Buffy that night. I should have already been inside the Bronze, with Willow and Jesse! Then they wouldn't have been taken. It's all my fault he was turned back then, if I hadn't known him - he would still be alive today..."

The demon smiled, when Xander started to tear up. "I'm so sorry, Jesse. Guess it's no wonder you don't want me around in Sunnydale..."

The foothold firmly established, the darklighter began to look through more of Xander's memories for ammunition to use against him.

-

Halliwell Manor.

The same time

Piper and Leo were coming down the staircase, at the same time Cordelia and Prue came in through the front door. "Guys, I got the job!" Prue exclaimed happily.

However, the two sisters' joy was not shared by the other duo. "Geez," Cordelia said, annoyed. "What's with you two?"

Piper just said it. "Demon."

"Oh, of course!" Cordelia said, more than a little upset as she threw her hands up. "Because I was just going to go get some massage oil for Xander and me tonight, and so it had to happen..."She stopped, when the former Chase girl saw them looking at her. "Right, shutting up now."

"Well," Prue mused, "At least it waited till after the job interview this time. Did it attack here?"

"No," Piper said. "We think it attacked Maggie, or rather - it was attacking Maggie..."

"Was attacking?" Cordelia asked, confused. "I didn't see any demons near that woman..." She looked to Prue. "Did you see any?"

Prue quickly shook her head. "What are you guys talking about?"

Piper motioned with her head, as she went into the sitting room. As they sat around the two couches Leo told them, "I think it's a darklighter."

"A darklighter?" Prue asked. "I thought they only went after whitelighters? You know, the big mortal enemies thing..."

"There are different kinds of darklighters," Leo informed them. "All of them go after whitelighters if we ever encounter one another, but a few also have their own specialty - like going after mortals."

"Seems that this one is a Spirit Killer," Piper said, very uneasy.

"Oh, well..." Cordelia groaned sarcastically, "I can tell this is going to be fun! What's that mean, really?"

"This version of darklighter takes a proactive approach to hunting whitelighters," Leo said with a bit of anger. "Like I've said before, my kind can tell who their future peers are going to be. But the thing is that darklighters can, as well."

"Right," Prue responded. "Like the one who went after Daisy last year?"

"Yeah," Leo answered. "However - the Spirit Killer doesn't have the touch of death, he instead uses telepathic suggestions to push the victim towards suicide."

"But wouldn't that be sorta counterproductive?" Piper wanted to know. "I mean however the person dies, they still become a whitelighter-"

"Ah, no..." Leo told her with a sigh. "Because becoming a whitelighter isn't a sure thing. Never is. If the person goes too far to the dark side, as Xander would put it, or if the person commits suicide - then they don't become one of us."

"But that makes no sense!" Cordelia said. "Okay, I can see not letting a bad guy become a whitelighter tracking here, but if they're murdered by a darklighter pushing them to kill themselves-"

"It doesn't matter," Leo interrupted her. "If a potential dies by their own hand...they don't become one of us. They can't. A suicidal whitelighter is something that's been shown to cause more harm than good, so they're automatically rejected."

Cordy still didn't look convinced, "Well, still, that's not taking into account what happens with the bad guy! I still say it's not suicide - it's murder."

The one-time guardian angel denied it, though. "Not technically. The darklighters, they never actually push their victims; they just always compel them to jump."

"Could the darklighter have just moved on from Maggie?" Prue wondered. "When we saw her earlier, she didn't seem anything like the suicidal woman she was before..."

"Yeah, and that's what worries me," Leo told his former charges. "I'm guessing the darklighter saw you cast your spell on Maggie - your magic is stronger than theirs. But if so, they would have tried to curse one of you..." He looked at Prue and Cordelia. "Have either of you had anything bad happen, ever since that spell was cast?"

"No," Cordelia answered at once.

"Me neither," Prue said. "I mean, I got the job and all..."

"Could the Power of Three have just canceled it out?" Piper asked.

"Not without you three knowing what was happening," Leo said firmly. "Even a witch at you guys' level of magic, would still have some of the spell rub off on you." He shook his head. "Trouble is, I simply can't see a darklighter just leaving after a victim of theirs is saved. They're like pitbulls; they would keep on trying, till SOMETHING stopped them."

"So, we should be on the lookout for what?" Piper asked. "Bad luck? But how can we possibly tell if a bit of bad luck is because of a spell, or just fate?"

Leo's answer was cut off by the phone ringing. "Hello?" Cordelia answered.

#Hi, this is Inspector Rachel McCabe at the SIU. Would Xander be home? I've tried his cell, and couldn't reach him.#

Cordelia's territorial alarm system went off slightly, as the cop Xander had mentioned being 'not at all bad-looking' called asking for her boyfriend. "Ah, no, he's not here. But I, Cordelia Halliwell - his 'girlfriend' - would be happy to take a message..."

Cordy could hear a laugh in the other woman's voice, after she'd stressed the word girlfriend. #I just wanted to tell him that his car's in the police impound yard, or rather what's left of it.#

"What!" Cordelia cried. "What the hell happened to Xander's car?"

#It seems he parked it in a tow away zone. And that area of town is not the best place to leave a car; his radio and tires are gone. Luckily, the tow truck got there before they could jimmy the trunk open.#

"Xander just left his car?" Cordelia demanded. "Why would he do that?"

#We think it broke down on him,# Rachel answered. #The engine's had it, if all the junk dripping from the radiator is any indication. Boy, first the bookstore and now his car; that guy, he's not having a good day today!#

"What bookstore?" Cordelia asked at once.

#Bay Area Books and Music,# Rachel told her. #He practically fell onto a woman, and just about got beaten up by her boyfriend. Plus on top of that, he single-handedly destroyed the entire magazine wall rack!#

"Yeah, that is bad...luck," Cordelia said, as her head shot up. "Is Daryl there?"

Having heard everything, her sisters and Leo just watched her closely as Cordelia's attitude changed in an instant.

-

SIU HQ, San Francisco, California.

The same time

"Yeah, just a second," Rachel said, before she covered the phone with her hand. "Daryl!"

Inspector Morris looked up from his paperwork, a few desks down. "Yeah?"

Rachel held up the phone. "Line three. Cordelia Halliwell wants to talk to you!"

Sighing, Daryl picked up his phone and opened the line. He waited till Rachel hung up, before he spoke. "Cordelia?"

After a moment he said quickly, "Whoa, calm down! I haven't seen him since yesterday-"

When he noticed Rachel and now Cassidy watching him, Morris turned away so that he was looking towards the window. "Look, I CAN'T put an APB out on him just like that!" Then he whispered, "What the hell's a darklighter?"

"What do you think is going on?" Cassidy asked her partner.

"I'm not sure," Rachel said honestly. "But if I remember right, Daryl's old partner got investigated for working with the Halliwell sisters..."

"Working with?" Cassidy asked. "But they're not cops or anything. How could..." Then she stopped, as Daryl hung up his phone and grabbed his jacket.

"If Xander comes in, do me a favour - keep him here!" Morris told the two women. "I'm going to check out his car, to see if I..."

"Rachel, Daryl, Cassidy!"

They all turned to see Captain Nash Bridges and Lieutenant Joe Dominguez walking their way. "We've got a location on the drug sale. Asses in gear, people, we've got to hurry - or we'll lose the entire fifty kilos!"

As the rest of the group started to follow the big shots to their cars, Daryl hung back for a second, cursing. (Damn it! Gee, sorry, Captain, but I have to go make sure my friend isn't in trouble - from some sorta demons? Yeah, sure, he'll buy that!)

With nothing else for it, Morris quickly ran to catch up - hoping this case could be wrapped up quickly.

-

Halliwell Manor.

3: 30 p.m.

"You think the darklighter is going after Xander?" Piper asked her sister, as she hung up the phone. "Why? And how would it even know about him? I mean, why go for a mortal when it can try for a Charmed One?"

"She's right, Cordy," Prue said. "If this darklighter was following us, it doesn't add up; as we haven't seen Xander since this morning. Long before I did the spell on Maggie-"

"Trust me. It's just a gut feeling, you guys, but I'm sure I'm onto something!" Cordelia said, as she started to pace. "I mean - Xander can be clumsy, a little - but that cop lady said he took out an entire display at the bookstore? Plus, his car finally falls apart and gets stripped!"

"Cordelia..." Leo said, playing devil's advocate. "We all know that Xander's car was already on its last legs..."

"Yes!" Cordelia said quickly. "But his car dies stranding him on the other side of the city, and none of us get a call to give him a ride home?" She looked at Piper and Leo. "Have either of you talked to him?"

"Not since this morning," Piper admitted, casting a glance to Leo she asked, "Could the darklighter have gone after Xander? You did think he could become a whitelighter..."

"I did," Leo nodded, ignoring the face that Cordelia made at hearing that. "But when you three went to the future, apparently he didn't become one? Well, like I've said before, his destiny's a real gray area; and there's no way to know for sure if a darklighter would sense Xander as a future threat. But better safe than sorry..."

"Let's try him ourselves before we panic, shall we?" Prue said calmly. She took out her own cell, and hit Xander's name on her speed dial. Cordelia waited anxiously, as Prue waited for her boyfriend to pick up.

#We're sorry, but the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected for lack of payment.#

"Well?" Cordelia demanded of her sister.

"I don't get it," Prue told her in confusion. "It said Xander's phone number was suspended, because of non-payment?"

"Uh-uh," Piper shook her head. "I paid the bill last week, when I went to the post office. He couldn't find a stamp, so I took it for him. The money was mailed off on time, I know it was..."

"It just doesn't make any sense!" Leo said, not understanding. "I mean, why go after a question mark like him - now? Apart from incredible coincidence, there's no way the darklighter could ever even have known about Xander! And if he could have gone after anyone close to you three - it would have been me!"

"Who cares why?" Cordelia yelled. "After we save Xander's cute butt, I can torture this thing and get our answers then!"

Prue stood and asked Leo, "Is Xander strong enough to fight this thing on his own?"

Leo quickly shook his head. "Physical strength doesn't matter, in this sort of fight. It would all be going on inside Xander's head. The darklighter uses powerful suggestion, to make the victim believe what he's hearing is his own thoughts. They can drag it out like he did with Maggie, or he could possibly ramp it up..."

"In order to make Xander want to jump quicker," Piper finished for him.

Prue was about to say something, when the sound of glass shattering was heard. The two older sisters and Leo looked at Cordelia; as she had punched her fist through the glass cover on the lighted book case.

"Cordy!" Prue yelled, as she helped her sister slowly pull her slightly-bloody fist out of the now-jagged glass.

Cordelia looked at her oldest sister, with definite fire in her eyes. "I swear to God, I am not losing him again!"

"It's okay, honey," Piper said, as she helped sit Cordelia down. "We'll find Xander, we will-"

"Damn right we will!" Cordelia said, not noticing the pain. "And I'm going to kill this thing, I kid you not! God, I'm sick of this crap! These things want to come after me, fine. But no one messes with my boyfriend!"

And Cordelia had no way to know how eerily she'd echoed the words once spoken by Buffy Summers, the vampire Slayer...the day she and Xander had first gotten together back in 1998...

-

Flashback

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California.

August, 1999

"Xander, you can't leave!" Willow shouted, springing up from her spot at the table as Giles and Joyce looked at her in surprise.

This was the time Cordy had first met her biological father, and just gotten off the phone with her former boyfriend. And Harris just sighed, knowing that the next few minutes weren't going to be easy for anyone. "Look, Wills, I know you're upset-"

"UPSET? You're darn tootin' I'm upset! You're ditching us, your family, to go off and do what? Be Cordelia's sugar daddy, or whatever?"

"Willow!" Joyce exclaimed, before Giles caught her eye and dragged her out of the room. The Watcher had seen signs of this argument coming, long before Xander had left on his road trip...

Buffy then stood up as well, she stood next to Willow in front of her friend. "Xander, come on! This is pathetic. If you want to get me interested in dating you, you don't have to resort to stupid ideas like this!"

Xander just stared at the duo in shock. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Buffy and Willow just looked at each, before calming down a little. "Xander, you don't have to deny it like you did earlier, it's just us here now. You don't have to try to shock me into anything, with the threat of you leaving! I've told you, I've never seen you that way - outside of a bad love spell-"

Finally, Xander was pushed past his limit. He got up and stared down the blonde girl, "Buffy, get over your delusions here! Because I haven't thought about you that way, in ages!" The absurdity of it all getting to him, Harris snapped. "Besides - even if I did, there's no telling what you might have picked up from Deadboy-"

Willow's eyes went huge. "ALEXANDER LAVELLE HARRIS! You apologize for that at once!" she shouted, as Buffy's eyes filled with tears.

"What the hell for?" Xander shouted back, making Willow step back in fear - and her boyfriend Daniel Osborne instinctively got in front of her. "I dunno where the heck you two got this idea that I still want to get into Buffy's pants, but let me tell you something - I don't! I'm moving to San Francisco-"

"So you can be with CORDELIA!" Willow's voice was full of scorn. "That useless skanky 'ho?"

"Don't call her that, Willow. Or else so help me God, I might start thinking that about you!" That remark also made Willow's green orbs shiny and wet, as Oz clutched her to himself tightly.

Harris went on, "I mean - why should I stick around here, people? For the maybe once-a-week five-minute coffee get-togethers - whenever the three of you get bored, during college?"

"Xander-" Oz started to say.

But the former Slayerette ignored him. "And lemme just say, I haven't forgotten how you guys want me to stay out of the slaying, even though I've saved all your asses in the past! What, am I supposed to hang around waiting for you people to talk to me, whenever you can be bothered - for the next four years!"

The youth took a breath, before a thought stuck him. "For God's sake, it'd be as if I was your friend in high school - but never even went into the library! And Cordelia needs me, along with her sisters-"

Buffy had recovered by now though, and angrily snapped out, "Fine! Go be with her, then. We'll probably be that much better off, without your dead weight around here!"

Buffy then looked like she regretted that statement the moment she'd made it, and didn't enjoy the look everyone instantly sent towards her. "I-I'm sorry, Xander, I didn't mean that-"

"Yeah! Me too-" Willow added, worried that her first-ever crush was truly going to leave her behind.

But Xander just shook his head, the bad feelings for the Scoobies pushing him out of the group - and still thinking he was fighting the good fight only to boff Buffy - getting to him. "Forget it! Look, sorry, but I'm outta here..."

Xander grabbed his jacket off the hook, and only paused long enough to say, "G'bye, Joyce, thank you for a lovely meal. Giles, feel free to look me up if you're ever in San Francisco..."

And with that, he was out the door.

And out of the Scooby gang's everyday lives.

End Flashback

-

San Francisco, California.

Thursday, January 18th 2001

3:45 p.m.

Xander sat by himself on the park bench, as the memories flooded back to him. Or at least, he THOUGHT he was by himself...

"I was wrong," the darklighter said into Xander's thoughts. "It was all for my own good. I'm just a normal human, after all - I can't really do any good against demons or vampires. I'm useless to the cause, I just get in the way..."

Xander shook his head, unknowingly fighting the demonic influence. (No...that's not true! I've taken out lots of demons both here and in Sunnyhell, and Lord knows how many vampires!)

These thoughts made no sense to him. (Hell, Deadboy's a vampire! An old one, yeah, but still just a vamp. It's the lowest of the low in the demon world, and yet he supposedly kicks ass in LA? Kennedy's last email said that...)

The darklighter looked surprised, as the human began to fight back against the dark magic. (No matter,) it thought, as the evil thing cranked up the level of persuasion. (I haven't lost anyone yet...)

It spoke in Xander's own voice once again, "No, come on, I can't keep making excuses for myself. Buffy and Willow were right all along; I just wanted to get together with Slay-gal. She's everything I ever wanted, from the moment I laid eyes on her. A smart, strong, beautiful girl to think I'm more than just a soon-to-be drunken wife-beater like my Dad. I'm just fooling myself with Cordelia..."

(No!) Xander tried to fight it. (None of that is...true...)

"It IS true," the darklighter said firmly. "I sent Angel to Hell with my lie. If I'd have told her Willow was trying the spell again, then odds are Buffy would have been able to hold him off. She's the Slayer, she could have handled one measly vampire - no matter what her feelings..." At the end of his words, the demon upped his power even more.

"She's the Slayer," Xander whispered, as he put his head in his hands. "Jesus, I really am just a jealous bastard. I..."

"I don't deserve to live," the darklighter said with a hard edge.

"I...don't deserve to live," Xander repeated, as a tear tricked down his cheek.

-

Halliwell Manor Conservatory.

The same time

The large, window-filled room that bathed its occupants in sunlight was always meant to be a calming, relaxing place for the manor's residents. At the moment though, it wasn't working out that way for the foursome present therein.

"Why won't you work, God damn it?" Cordelia Halliwell yelled, as she angrily tossed the cordless phone towards the far wall - after yet another unsuccessful attempt to contact her boyfriend.

Only Prue using her powers saved the device from smashing into a dozen pieces, as she quickly redirected it in mid-air. Thus, it landed harmlessly in an empty padded chair.

Leo stopped pacing, and faced the three sisters. "Cordelia, you're our best shot here."

"Me?" the youngest witch asked. "Why?"

"You've known Xander your entire life," Leo told her. "And he's never told me much about what it was like for him growing up, other than he was damn glad to get away from his family way back when. Are there any events in his childhood that were very...traumatic?"

Cordelia just snorted at that question. "Oh, just take your pick, pal! It was so bad at his house that he slept outside on the lawn during Christmas Eve, even after he knew that vampires were everywhere in that town..."

"Why ask about his childhood?" Prue asked.

Leo leaned on the back of her chair, as he answered. "It'd be easy for the darklighter to push Xander towards suicide, if he can mirror an event from his past. As the wounds from childhood are almost always the worst ones."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"Say when he was 14 years old," Leo said as an example. "Xander had thought of suicide. It could have been no more than a stray thought, on a very bad day. He wouldn't have done it then, but the darklighter can make him think he would have..."

"And once he thinks he would have done it back then," Piper finished for him. "He would be more likely to think of it now!"

"Right," Leo said with a nod.

"Anyone have any ideas on how to find the big dork?" Cordelia asked desperately, looking between Leo and her two sisters. "'Cause our magic is hit and miss with regards to him, and he's not a witch - so scrying won't cut it..."

Piper could easily tell how upset her sister was getting. "Okay, so we can't find Xander. But can we find the darklighter?"

"No," Leo said right away. "Not without a whitelighter. We sense each other."

At that moment, the forgotten cordless phone started to ring. Cordelia instantly dashed for it, "Xander?"

#Hey Cordy,# came Xander's saddened voice from the other end.

-

Bayview Park, San Francisco, California.

The same time

At the park, Xander was at a pay phone. He looked utterly defeated, after hours of the darklighter working his mojo on him. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry-"

#Where are you! And sorry for what?# Cordelia's voice said back.

There was only silence in reply. #Look, Xander, whatever you think is going on, whatever you're feeling - it's not real! There's a demon-#

"There always is, isn't there?" Xander said, downcast. "Demons are always after me, I must be some kinda demon magnet! First Buffy and Willow had to look after me, and now I'm bringing them straight to your new family-"

#No!# Cordelia yelled into the phone. #None of this is your fault, Xander! Those demons are coming after the Charmed Ones, after me - not you! And you're just being used to get at us-#

"You don't have to make excuses, Cordy, not anymore," Xander whispered. "I know for a fact that all I bring you and everyone else is pain and heartbreak. All I am is the Zeppo, you were right all along..."

The darklighter smiled, his prey was now in the zone. So he sent Xander another subconscious nudge.

Harris looked up, to see the tall buildings in the distance. His eyes zeroed in on the five-story parking garage, just past the large park. And a sense of calm came over him, when he saw it.

"It's okay, Cordy," Xander said into the phone. "I understand what I have to do now. At least no one will have to worry about me again. Just find someone who'll treat you like you deserve, okay?"

#What?# the Charmed One's voice shouted through the phone. #Xander, God damn it, listen to me! Don't do anything, nothing! We're coming to get you, just please tell me where you are!#

After less than a moment Cordelia added heartbreakingly, #Please, Xander. I love you! Just tell me where you are, right now!#

"No point," Harris told her vaguely, his mind seriously messed with. "Daryl'll be able to tell you. And you'll be much better off without me..."

The darklighter shoved with all his might, and Xander ignored her cries as he hung up the phone. Now looking at the building in the distance, Xander just sighed as he started walking off towards it.

The darklighter kept talking to him, as Harris started on his path to damnation. "I have to do it. If I don't, I'll just get them all killed eventually. I should have been the one to have died back then, not Jesse. Jesse would have never cheated on Cordelia, with Willow..."

"I should have been the one Darla picked, back then," Xander murmured to himself, as the words were thought in his head.

-

Halliwell Manor Attic.

The same time

"Xander!" Prue tried to comfort the crying Cordelia, as the former Sunnydalian yelled into the phone. "Damn it! Please, sweetheart..."

Piper came over and hugged her sister as well. "Did he give you any idea where he was?"

"No," Cordelia whimpered, as she cried on her sibling's shoulder. "That thing is using something I said to Xander years ago, to push him over the edge..."

Prue took the phone and looked at the screen. Every part of the last call showed 'Unknown'. She showed it to Leo, "Not even a time of last call. The darklighter can affect caller ID?"

Leo just nodded. "It must know who you three are now, after going through Xander's memories. The darklighter won't be taking any chances-"

"There has to be SOME way to find him," Piper said, as she held onto Cordelia. "Did Xander say anything, or did you hear anything that could give us any clue?"

"He, he said Daryl would be able to tell me," Cordelia sniffed.

Prue swore. "Because he would be called to the scene afterwards, just like he was with Maggie!"

Cordelia's head bolted up. "What did you say?"

Prue looked down. "I'm sorry, Cordy, but they'll call Daryl after they find-"

"No!" Cordelia said, very determined. "Son of a bitch! It's been right in front of us, all along!"

"What is?" Piper asked her.

"Maggie!" Cordelia yelled, as she quickly wiped away her tears. "She can do it!" The young woman ran to the table, grabbed the folded city map they'd used for scrying and moved to the front door. "Well? Will you guys come on?"

Leo started to head out with the other two sisters. "I'm coming with you-"

No," Piper said, stopping him. "Somebody has to stay here, in case he comes back, or..."

"Piper," Leo told her, annoyed.

But the Halliwell woman stood firm. "If we find him, the darklighter will be there too. And if he recognizes you..." She didn't have to finish the thought, since Leo knew that he could do nothing to defend himself against his enemies now.

"Piper, I really hate this," Leo stated. "I hate not being able to look after you guys!"

She cupped his face with her hand. "I know. I'm sorry."

They shared a quick look, before the witch ran to catch up with her sisters.

-

San Francisco, California.

4:00 p.m.

Near the edge of the park, the darklighter kept urging Xander onward. "I gotta keep moving, keep walking. I have to save Cordelia from any more demons, they'll leave the girls alone if I'm gone. I have to do it. Keep walking, yeah, keep walking..."

"Got to keep walking," Xander said. "Just keep going. I have to end it..."

-

Bayside Mental Clinic, San Francisco, California.

A short while later

"Maggie!"

The blonde woman looked up, from helping a elderly man do a crossword puzzle. "I'll be right back, Mr. Burns..."

She got up and went over to two sisters she'd met earlier in the day. "It's good to see you both again..." She looked at Piper. "I don't think I've met you, though..."

"Oh, I'm..." Piper started to say, but she was cut off by Cordelia. "She's our other sister, Piper. Look Maggie, sorry to rush you here - but we don't have a lot of time. We need your help!"

Maggie's eyebrow went up at that. "What could I do to help you?"

Cordelia went to a nearby counter, and unfolded the map. "I need you to point on the map."

"I don't understand-"

"It's okay, Maggie," Prue told the woman. "There's a friend of ours, who's like you were. He's in trouble, and we just need you to find him for us."

Maggie still didn't understand, but she would do anything to help the woman who'd saved her life. She didn't look, and just pointed on the map.

Piper looked where her finger had landed. "43rd and Belmont." Looking towards Prue she added, "That's just off the end of Bayview Park, right?"

Prue just nodded, as Cordelia quickly grabbed the map. "Okay, that's not too far from here - we have to move!"

As the three sisters ran for the door, Prue looked back. "Thanks, Maggie!"

"You're welcome!" Maggie called back. (Off to save another person. They really are angels...)

-

San Francisco, California.

4:10 p.m.

A couple blocks from the park, the cops from the SIU were watching as the patrol cars took away the drug dealers. "Not bad for a day's work," Nash told Lieutenant Dominguez.

Joe just shook his head. "A fraction of the street value of that stuff, it could pay little Lucia's college tuition a hundred times over..."

"Don't worry, Bubba," Captain Bridges told him. "You have a long time before that..."

Joe looked back, when Nash trailed off. "What?" He then saw Nash looking at the building on the end of the block, the parking garage. And then man climbing onto the ledge.

"Come on!" Nash yelled, as the rest of the SIU cops took off after him.

(Xander?) Daryl thought, as he saw his friend from the short distance. "No, damn it!"

-

Vista View Parking

Xander was on the ledge with unashamed tears streaming down his face, as the darklighter continued unrelentingly to whisper in his head. "That's it. It's the only way. It's the only way to save the ones I love. I should've done it before. Back when my dad first beat me up."

"I didn't want to," Xander said faintly.

"But if I had, so many people would still be alive today," the darklighter said to him. "Like Jesse, Ms. Calendar, Harmony, even Andy. Because of me, Prue lost Andy. That demon could only have been after me!"

By this point, the lies were no longer distinguishable from the truth within the mind of Xander Harris. And the darklighter had to admit, the mortal had held out for much longer than he'd expected; anyone else would have checked out ages ago.

"I'm responsible for all of them," Xander said as he cried.

The darklighter was loving this. "It's all my fault. Jump. Jump."

-

Halliwell Manor Attic.

The same time

Leo was by himself, searching through the Book of Shadows. "There's gotta be something in here. Damn it!" He slammed the book closed. "I can't just sit back and do nothing. Think, think!" Mr. Wyatt ordered himself, as he took a seat on a nearby trunk.

"There's got to be a way that I can..." Leo trailed off, as the idea hit him.

And looking up towards the ceiling the former guardian angel yelled out, "Give me my powers back. I want my powers back!"

Nothing happened. So Leo tried again, "I want my powers back, and I want them back now!"

When his yelling still went unanswered, he sighed, "I can't keep being mortal if this is the cost..." Looking back up, Leo spoke to the Elders - who he knew had to be listening. "No, I don't wanna lose Piper. But I also don't want to keep her, at the expense of losing Xander..."

He was definitely pleading now. "This is my calling. You have to let me help. For whatever reason Xander's important, we all know that! And if you do nothing, he's gonna die. You have to give me my wings back!"

Again, nothing happened; and so Leo closed his eyes, not knowing what else to do.

When all of a sudden, his hands started to tingle. Leo's eyes shot open, just in time to see his right hand start glowing with a soft golden light.

-

Vista View Parking

The same time

Xander was just about to let go of the railing, when a sudden voice stopped him. "Xander, don't let go!"

Both human and darklighter whipped around, to see Daryl and the other cops rush from the stairwell. The cops, of course, could only see and hear Harris - and so missed the evil thing's look of instant rage.

"Stay back, Daryl, I have to do this!" Xander called to his friend. "It's the only way they'll be safe-"

"Don't do it, Bubba!" Captain Bridges called out, as they tried to get close without scaring him. Cassidy was in shock that the guy she'd been thinking of asking out, was now about to jump off a building. (Boy, did I miss all the signs or what?)

Daryl didn't see any other choice; he didn't have time to call the Halliwells. (Damn! Here goes nothing...) "Xander, listen to me. Cordelia explained it to me. It's a darklighter that's doing this to you. You gotta fight it!"

Nash stopped and looked at Joe, but his partner shrugged - just as confused at what Daryl was trying, as the police captain was.

But said darklighter quickly squashed any doubt in Xander's mind. "What does he know about them? He's never even seen a darklighter, he didn't even know about vamps till I told him what was the what! Don't listen to him!"

"Xander?" Daryl tried again. "It's the same one that went after Maggie. Trust me on that!"

"No, he's lying!" the darklighter said, his inner rage growing. "Nothing was after Maggie, she just knew what she needed to do. Just like I have to!"

"I have to do this, Daryl!" Xander called to his friend. "You should let me, after all - it's my fault Andy's dead!"

Now that caught Daryl off-guard. "Xander, what the hell are you talking about? That wasn't you, you weren't even here then! Remember, you'd gone back to Sunnydale?"

Before anyone else could say anything, a black Jeep sped up the ramp. It quickly squealed to a stop, right in front of Daryl. And like the Inspector, the sisters didn't care that the other cops were there at the moment.

"Get away from the railing, Xander!" Cordy called as she ran for him, but stopped when he almost let go. "Xander, please, this isn't you. The darklighter is making you do this!"

"I'm all alone," the evil thing drilled into Xander's mind, as Harris inadvertently tried to fight back.

"Alone," Xander said vaguely, through his tears.

"Listen to her, Xander!" Prue called out, going for broke. "He put a spell on you, just like he did with Maggie. We saved her, so now he's going after you in revenge!"

The demon kept whispering, "There is no darklighter. There's only me."

"Just me," Xander said at the same time, his eyes unfocused.

Cordelia tried to get close again, but that only made Xander almost let go. "Alexander Harris, you get off that ledge right now!" she screamed, the old Queen C persona surfacing for a moment.

"Don't pressure him, for God's sake," Captain Bridges told her, only to get a nasty look from the witch.

Prue could only think of one thing to try. (Come on, concentrate...speak from the heart, like you did with Maggie!) "Make this demon show his face. Reveal the evil to everyone, in this time and in this place."

The results of Prue's quick spell caused the cops to draw their guns, however two people didn't notice the new event. The darklighter, or Xander.

"Jump, damn it!" the demon yelled at Xander. "Hurry up. End it before I hurt them again!"

Xander had been looking down at the street below, and was so surprised at the new voice right behind him that he almost slipped - again. His emotion-filled face looked over towards the bald demon, and an epiphany took place in his brain.

"Son of a bitch, it's true..." Harris whispered, looking at his nemesis. "Sorry, asshole. But you lose!"

The darklighter was utterly shocked. "How did you?"

Looking back, he then saw everyone staring right at him. "No...you can't see..." But that was all he got out, before Prue used her powers and hurled him away from Xander. The demon landed in a heap a couple of feet away.

Instantly Cordelia and Piper ran to Xander, and quickly helped him back to the right side of the railing. "Are you okay?" Piper asked at once.

"Cordy?" was all that Harris could ask, as he hugged her tight.

"It's okay, Xander," she told her boyfriend, as Cordelia and Piper carried the emotionally exhausted man between them from the ledge.

Now that Xander was safe, Prue didn't hold back. As with any oldest child, no one messed with her family and got away with it - without answering to her! And to the oldest witch, Xander was as much a Halliwell as he was a Harris - even more. "You bastard. How dare you hurt people this way!" She gestured again, and sent the darklighter flying into the ramp wall, hard.

"Daryl, what the hell is going on here!" Captain Bridges demanded to know, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"All we need to know is, he's the bad guy!" Daryl told his captain, as he aimed his gun at the darklighter.

"Wait, he's unarmed!" Lieutenant Dominguez called out.

(No he isn't!) Daryl made a decision, and fired right at the demon's bald head.

And the shock of the other cops over him shooting an unarmed suspect grew ten-fold - as before the bullet arrived, the evil thing orbed out in a cloud of black lights.

And reappeared in the same spot, after the bullet hit the wall behind him. "You can't kill me, idiot human!" it sneered at Daryl, before looking over towards the Charmed Ones. "And neither can you..."

"Wanna test that theory?" Cordelia asked with rage in her eyes, as she left Piper holding onto Xander. She held up her right hand, as it seemed to catch on fire. The witch then hurled the column of fire at the demon, who again black-orbed out and back in again.

"Whoa!" Inspector Leek said in disbelief, as the fire was thrown.

The darklighter looked back at the now-scorched wall. "Foolish witch. That might work on slower demons, but not with me!"

"It doesn't matter what it takes!" Prue tells him. "We won't stop, until you're gone!"

"Likewise, you idiot!" the demon laughed at her. It did a quick sweep of the people on the roof, and zeroing in on the youngest cop he taunted her, "Well. I wonder how long it would take me to push young Cassidy here, to kill herself?"

Cassidy's face went white, as her father stepped in front of her. "You're not going anywhere near my daughter, pal-"

"Oh? Does this mean you're volunteering to go first?" the hair-challenged demon continued to taunt. "I mean, can't you just see the headlines? 'Police Captain Hangs Himself In The Shower'!"

"I think you better stop talking, before I order my people to put you in the ground," Nash said in a hard voice.

"Do I look like a purse snatcher to you, Captain Bridges?" the demon asked him laughingly. "By all means, try...oh, that's too good!" he said, as the damned thing looked at Cassidy again. "Now that's going to be easy to use, I have to say..."

"What?" Cassidy looked at her dad, but before Nash could guess what the darklighter was talking about - the demon spoke in a new voice.

The voice of the deceased SIU Inspector Evan Cortez

"Cassidy, if you hadn't come to Vegas to see me - I wouldn't have been distracted. And I wouldn't have gotten shot. My death is all your fault..."

As his daughter's face filled with tears at the verbalization of that horribly dark thought buried within her mind, Nash turned to Prue. "I don't care what it takes, sister, but this...thing is going down. Talk to me, how do we stop him?"

"Couldn't agree more," Prue replied. "But I don't know how!"

"Well, tell you what - I'm willing to give you all some time to try and think of something," the darklighter told them mockingly. "Because I have to pick which one of you I want to see kill themselves first, after all! It might start in a day, a week, or even an hour. But don't worry, Xander Harris. I won't forget about you - because you have to die!"

With those last words, the darklighter straightened his tie and began to black-orb out. And in the instant he began to do so, another cloud of orb lights appeared - white ones.

That coalesced into the form of Leo Wyatt.

The newly-reinstated whitelighter jumped into the orbs of the darklighter, and dragged the kicking and fighting demon back to earth. "Let me go, damn you!" it yelled.

"Not a chance!" Leo said fiercely, as he wrestled the darklighter to the ground.

"Leo!" Piper called out in shock, at seeing him orb in. (Oh my God, he's one of them again?)

Wyatt looked up, to see several people staring down at him. A few with drawn guns. "Are you okay?" he asked Xander.

"Yeah, man, I think so..." his charge answered back, between the two youngest sisters.

Leo nodded, before looking towards Piper with a sad look. "I have to go. Now!" He forcefully orbed the darklighter with him up to the domain of the Elders.

"Now who was that?" Rachel asked, after Leo had left with his prisoner.

"That was the, uh, good guy," Daryl replied, as he holstered his sidearm.

-

Halliwell Manor.

5:00 p.m.

Cordelia had hung on to Xander tightly the entire time, ever since his almost-suicide. On the roof, during the car ride home, and now as the group came into the house.

She didn't say a word, as she led her boyfriend up to his bedroom.

Piper, Prue, and Daryl just watched them disappear up the stairs, before they left to head over for the talk that everyone knew was coming.

-

Apartment of Captain Nash Bridges, San Francisco, California.

5:30 p.m.

At the head of the large table in his spacious apartment, Captain Bridges looked at Daryl - after the older two Halliwell sisters had spilled the beans. "Well - your old lieutenant told me that you were covering something up, what with all those unsolved cases. Have to say, though, I never thought it was this..."

Daryl sighed. "Actually - I knew jack about it for a long time, sir."

"Andy was the first one to find out," Prue said sadly.

"Inspector Trudeau?" Nash asked. "He was a good man."

"Yeah," Prue replied. "He and I dated in high school, so he knew me. That's why he was also able to notice the signs that...others might have missed."

"Got that right," Daryl said with a sigh. "Andy was always ready to believe what I didn't even bother trying to."

"I take it then, the official report of his death was faked?" Nash asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh God, that day!" Piper groaned, while Prue closed her eyes for a moment. "A demon wanted to kill us. Nothing new there, except he had help..." the oldest sister semi-whispered.

"It was a higher-level demon named Tempus," Piper said, taking over for Prue. The younger Halliwell didn't want her older sibling to explain all that to the others, since it brought back so many bad memories. "And he could control time, in a way. The day would reset itself, until the demon - a fake police Inspector - was able to kill us. Each day was like practice, to learn how we fought."

"Like that 'Groundhog Day' movie?" Rachel asked, trying to grasp it.

"Uh-huh," Piper said. "The only way we even knew it was happening at first, was Cordelia. Since she's a seer, she could tell almost right away that the day was repeating. After a few time loops, she could predict what was going to happen - from what our cat did, to a car accident down the block!" She took a sip of her water, before finishing the story. "We found out about Tempus, and used a spell to vanquish him. Unfortunately..."

"Unfortunately," Prue took over suddenly, as she wanted to be the one to say it. "It was too late. I had to make the decision. Either let the day reset itself and therefore save Andy, or destroy Tempus while we had the chance..." She looked right at Captain Bridges. "I just couldn't take the risk. We'd have forgotten everything we'd learned during that go-around, and we all could have died the next time..."

Piper was the only one in the room who knew what her sister was omitting. The little chat Prue thought she'd had with Andy 'upstairs', as she termed it. "He died a hero, trying to save our lives."

"That's too bad," Joe said honestly. "Sounds like he would have made a great addition to the SIU."

"Yeah, he damn well would have," Daryl replied.

"One thing I want to get back to," Antwon said, after a moment had passed. "These vampires. You're sayin' they're all over the place?"

"Well, they've been giving our city a wide berth for a while now," Prue responded.

"Why?" Cassidy asked.

Piper smiled a little. "The word got out. That the Charmed Ones live here, and a vampire Slayer as well - at least, she used to."

"Say, what do these vampires look like?" Harvey asked, interested. "Deformed forehead, yellow eyes, fangs and super-strong?"

"That's right," Prue said, a little surprised at what Harvey seemed to know. "How?"

"Something you want to share, Harv?" Bridges asked him.

The beret-wearing cop nodded. "Bonnie and I were at a Grateful Dead concert in Germany years ago, I got jumped by this mousy-looking guy. Damnest thing I ever saw, but his face changed right in front of me - he also said he was going to eat me..."

"How the hell did you get away?" Daryl asked him. "Xander told me it took him a long time, to be able to go one on one with those things...and survive!"

"Not sure about that part," Harvey admitted. "I was a tad out of it before then, what with the concert and all, but I know I got knocked out for a sec. When I came to this young girl, she looked Spanish, said the guy who'd attacked me ran away."

"She could have been a Slayer," Piper mused. "When Xander's feeling better, we can have him talk to Giles to find out."

Joe shook his head at all this. "You reach an age, where you think you know how the world works..." He looked towards Nash. "What do you think, Bubba?"

Bridges just leaned back. "I think I should have stayed in bed today..." Looking at Prue he said, "Can we do anything to stop these things? After all - they're going after the people we get paid to serve and protect, just like all the other scum out there..."

"Only the vampires. Maybe," the eldest witch admitted. "They have weaknesses you can use against 'em, but you saw how well guns worked against that darklighter."

"So, we consider you guys the department's outside experts?" Joe asked.

"I think that could work," Prue said, as she looked to Piper. "When you guys come across something, give us a call and we can help out-"

"I didn't know we were having so much company over today!" a male voice said from the entrance.

Everyone looked to see the elderly Nick Bridges come into the apartment. "Working on a case?" he asked, at seeing all the SIU cops.

"Ah, Nick..." Nash said to his father, not sure how to handle this.

But Cassidy beat him to it. "Sorry, Grandpa," she said, trying to steer him towards the outside patio and away from the conversation at the table. "But it's kind of-"

"Nick Bridges!"

Nick and everyone else looked at Prue, who was staring at Nick in shock. "Do I know you, young lady?"

Prue stood up from her chair. "It's me, Prue Halliwell. I went through elementary school with Stacy, then you guys moved all the way across town..." She looked at Nash and his daughter. "I didn't know you guys were related to THOSE Bridges!"

Piper looked at her, surprised. "Prue?"

Nick looked at Prue for a long moment, before his eyes went a little wide. "Well, I'll be - little Prudence Halliwell? You're Penny's granddaughter?"

Prue smiled, as she went and hugged him. Piper looked Nick over, and a light clicked on inside her brain. "You were at Grams' funeral, weren't you?"

"Didn't stay long," Nick admitted. He looked between the two sisters. "I hadn't seen Penny in years, after all."

"You knew their grandmother, Grandpa?" Cassidy asked.

"It was a few years after your grandmother died," Nick told his own grandchild. "We knew each other for a bit, before we tried our hand at something more, but Penny wasn't really wanting to settle down again after losing Jack. We just kinda drifted together, long enough to have some laughs..."

With the small wink Nick gave her, Cassidy could instantly guess what her granddad and Penny Halliwell had done when they'd gotten together. (Ack! No! Scary mental place!)

"So how is Stacy, anyway?" Prue asked the eldest Bridges present.

-

Halliwell Manor.

9:27 pm

Piper and Prue were talking over the events of the day in the sitting room, when they heard the doorbell ring. "I'll get it," the middle sister announced.

"Wait, what if it's Dan?" Prue asked her. "What if he's back from his trip early?"

Piper didn't even flinch at the question. "Well, then I have to tell him the truth. Just because Leo has his wings back, it doesn't change anything."

A moment later in the foyer, Piper opened the door to find the man she loved on the other side. "Leo, you rang the bell?"

"Yeah," the whitelighter said softly. "I wasn't sure how you'd feel about me just orbing in."

As she moved aside to let him in, the witch told her beloved, "I'd feel okay."

Leo waited, till she'd closed the door and faced him again. "Look, I just wanted to let you know that this wasn't their idea. It was mine - and it's-it's not something I wanted to do, it's just-"

Piper stopped him, before he went on any further. "Leo, I meant what I said and I thought about this a lot. Whitelighter or not, we can find a way to make this work. Somehow, some way."

He tried to hide his surprise. "I'm gonna hold you to that."

"You do that," Piper said with a smile, before she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed her man intensely.

A short time later, Cordelia came down the stairs - to find the three people sitting around the metal table in the solarium. "Hey," she said lightly, as the woman grabbed an empty chair.

"How's he doing?" Prue asked, concerned.

"Xander's sleeping now, thank God," Cordy told them somberly. "But he's seriously screwed up. That THING twisted around everything he believed in, just about, to get him to jump. I'm sure it's gonna take a while before he's willing to talk about the details; for a time there, I think Xander thought I wasn't coming back when I just went to go to the bathroom!"

"Everyone has feelings of not being wanted, or not fitting in sometimes," Leo said. "We'll just have to be there for him for a few days, to undo all the stuff that was put into his head."

"Of course we will," Prue said certainly. "He's family, after all."

Cordelia let a small smile show on her face. "Yeah, that he is. Even if I'm not married to him yet!"

"You know..." Piper said, as she got up. She went over to the coffee table, and picked through the mail. "We got this in the mail yesterday." She handed the flyer to Prue. "It's been a long time since we did one, so what do you say?"

"Did one what?" Cordelia asked. Prue handed her the flyer. "Family portraits, 25 off?" the youngest Halliwell exclaimed.

Piper said, sitting back down, "What better way is there to let Xander know he's a member of the family, than by having him in the Halliwell family album?"

Cordy looked between the couple at the table. "I take it he won't be the only male in the photo?"

"Got that right!" Piper said, as she leaned her head on Leo's shoulder. "Wings or not, we'll work it out."

Now knowing that Leo getting his whitelighter groove back wasn't a sore spot, Cordy asked, "What about the darklighter? If the Elders need someone to take him out..."

"It's been taken care of," Leo told her. "They tried to find out why it went after Xander, or even how it knew about him. But the darklighter didn't give anything up, before they finally vanquished him."

Piper noticed he was holding something back. "Leo? Is there something else?"

The whitelighter nodded. "It's just - I was there at the time, and I felt like...like he was hiding something. On account of a darklighter simply wouldn't keep quiet like that, unless he was more afraid of what would happen to him if he DID talk. I have no proof, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone else had set all this up - behind the scenes, so to speak..."

Cordelia let out a big sigh. "If that's true, then it's just someone else we'll have to vanquish later on, when we finally locate his ass."

-

Main Street, Sunnydale, California.

February, 2001

"Oh my God!" Willow screeched. "Buffy, why did you buy that!"

"Why do you ask?" Buffy asked, as she held up the unzipped garment bag. "Do you think it would make me look fat? Because I can't have that!"

Willow and Tara just looked at each other, not really knowing what to say. "That...that's just not a normal outfit for you to buy..." the redhead stammered.

"Oh! Well, it was a request," Buffy answered.

"A half-naked French maid outfit was a request!" Willow yelled, causing a group of guys on the street to look at them.

Not liking the stares, Willow took Buffy's arm and dragged the blonde to a nearby alley. "Buffy, do you have a boyfriend?" Willow asked, hurt that she didn't know what was going on. Because the man called Riley Finn...was now history.

But Buffy didn't answer her question - she just suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no, it's that late?" She quickly zipped up the bag. "Sorry Willow, but I have to go. I can't keep my man waiting!"

"Buffy!" Willow yelled, as the Slayer vanished down the street and around the corner. "Buffy! Come back!"

"Geez, Willow..."

Both the blonde and redheaded witch spun to see the one and only Buffy Summers standing behind them.

"Buffy!" Willow exclaimed, surprised. "How did you change clothes so fast?" For the Slayer now had on a pair of jeans and a sweater.

"And did you drop your bag?" Tara asked, not seeing the garment bag.

"Ah, no..." Buffy said, as she held up her fast food bag. "What's going on?"

"You tell us!" Willow told her hotly. "How did you change clothes so fast, and-and why didn't you tell me you have a new boyfriend?"

Buffy looked at her best friend in total confusion. "I was a little chilly, so I put my sweater back on before I went to get lunch. And unless I totally missed something, I didn't pick up a date with the Subway Sandwich Artist that made my meatball sub!"

"Buffy?" Willow said, not understanding. "I meant the guy you bought that very 'adult' French maid outfit for!"

"What?" Buffy demanded, as her eyes went wide.

Tara's head perked up. "Ah, Willow?"

"Yeah, sweetie?" Willow asked her girlfriend.

"How did the other Buffy suddenly know what time it was?" Tara asked, as she looked around the area. "She didn't look at her watch, and there are no clocks around that I can see..."

-

Spike's crypt.

A short time later

The Buffybot adjusted her cleavage in her new uniform; her internal clock told her that it was now time to begin today's program. She put the mug of blood on the tray, and then walked on her high heels to the other side of the chamber.

"Hello, maid," the male vamp present told her with laugh, as she came close to him.

"And a big hello to you as well, Lord Spike," the Buffybot said, as she set down the tray and handed the mug to the undead guy. "Shall I begin my duties, sir?"

"Yeah, reckon you should at that," the British vampire ordered with a sip of blood.

As demanded by the program, the Buffybot giggled before she turned and started to dust the crypt. "Oh my!" she said. "Just look how dirty this is..."

"Very dirty," Spike said as he watched the maid's outfit expose the Buffybot's rear end, as it bent down to clean the low shelf.

A short while later, Spike got tired of the voyeurism and decided to spice things up a little. "Oy, maid. Leave it alone, luv; place looks clean enough now!"

The Buffybot straightened up. "Shall I rerun this program for you?"

Spike frowned, "Told ya before, pet; don't use talk like that. Either be a maid, or be Buffy!"

The Buffybot nodded. "I understand. That's why I, I wanna hurt you, stake you even, but I can't resist the sinister attraction of your cold and muscular body."

Spike grinned again; this was more like it. "Want to have at me, ducks? Give it your best shot, then..."

The robot created in Buffy Summers' image picked up a stake, and rushed William the Bloody; but he easily avoided it, as the machine had been programmed not to really try and kill him.

"You still can't do it, can ya luv?"

"No," the Buffybot panted, simulating sexual tension as Spike grabbed it in his arms. "I'm helpless before you, you fiend!"

The vampire instantly tore off the maid's outfit with a huge smirk, and threw the nude Buffybot onto his bed. They then kissed hard, as Spike briefly whispered, "Oh, Buffy..."

A short while later, the Buffybot's screams could be heard in the crypt above the squeaks of the bedsprings. "Oh, Spike! You're evil, but I can't help myself. I love you! I LOVE you! Ah! Ah! AHH! You're the big bad! Oh my God, Spike - you're the BIG BAD!"

-

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

The next day

"I'll get it!" Willow Rosenberg called out, as she came out of the tiny kitchen belonging to the apartment of Rupert Giles.

The redheaded young witch had her mind on other things, when she opened the door.

And as such, she didn't see the fist heading directly towards her face till it was WAY too late.

"Willow!" Buffy Summers yelled, as she jumped off the couch. The Slayer jumped right in between her knocked-down friend, and... "Cordelia?"

Cordelia Halliwell and another man Buffy didn't recognize walked right into the condo. "Useless skanky 'ho? You actually called me that, two years ago?" the former Sunnydale snob yelled at Willow, as the redhead wiped away a small amount of blood coming from her nose.

"What the hell are you doing here!" Buffy demanded, not letting Cordy get any closer to Willow. "And this had better be good-"

Cordelia turned her fury-filled eyes to the blonde. "Do you two have any idea, what your bitching at Xander did back then? A damn darklighter nearly got him dead, because of all your 'he's just dead weight' issues. Not to mention all that crap that Xander only exists to screw your brains out, Summers!"

Buffy and Willow quickly exchanged glances, as long-buried memories of that conversation surfaced. "Ah, Cordelia?" Giles said stepping up. "What happened in San Francisco?"

"A darklighter attacked Xander recently," Leo answered for his charge. "He nearly killed himself, because of that."

"My word!" Giles exclaimed.

"A Spirit Killer?" Jesse asked, as he stepped around the couch. Leo just nodded. "Son of a bitch!"

"What's a Spirit Killer?" Buffy demanded at once.

"It's a darklighter, one of the nastier kinds out there," Jesse told her. "It can twist a person's emotions or memories around, to try to get them to commit suicide."

"And how..." Willow asked, upset. "How, exactly, does that justify trying to beat me up?"

"Real simple," Cordelia responded. "Both you and Buffy treating him like he was a retard after high school was over, was exactly what that damn darklighter needed - to get my boyfriend to off himself!" She looked at both the blonde and redhead. "Look, to tell you the truth, I don't give a crap what you think about me. But if either of you lay that shit on Xander again...I will hurt you both. And that's a promise!"

"First of all, Cordelia?" Buffy said with her arms crossed. "What we told Xander then, it was for his own good. He was never the best fighter around, and hell - he proved that, what with his lie about Angel! Now, what the hell was Xander doing where a demon could attack him?" She looked to the brunette woman harshly. "And why did YOU let it attack him? You super-witches or whatever should have protected him!"

"Why, you bottle-blonde little..." Cordelia said, as her right hand caught on fire in her sudden rage.

Leo quickly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Cordelia?"

"Huh?" the Charmed One snapped out of her anger, to see everyone staring at her with slack jaws. "Oh! Sorry..." Without knowing how for sure, the brunette willed the fire away. "Not that it's not tempting..."

After what she had just seen, Buffy was now firmly in a Slayer attack stance. She put a finger to the other girl's chest and snapped, "I don't know what the hell that was, Cordy, but you better not-"

Ms. Summers had been going to say more, but Cordelia gasped. "What?" the Chosen One asked at once, understanding that something weird had happened.

Leo quickly got in between the Slayer and his witch. "Cordelia, what did you see?"

Cordy looked beyond him to Buffy. "You know some doctor guy, named Ben?"

Buffy looked at the brunette with surprise. "What does that have to do with...?"

"I know you do!" Cordelia said firmly. "I just saw you talking to him, in my premonition!"

"Yes, uh, I do believe that I've heard of this Ben chap," Giles said. "But why would you get a premonition about him?"

"Just - don't trust him," Cordy told the Watcher. "Because I also saw how he turns into this blonde chick, one who looks like a supermodel - and puts her fingers inside some woman's head!"

"Okay..." Buffy said patronizingly, thinking Cordelia had lost it - then Glory's cloaking magic went into effect.

Leo simply thought that they should leave now, given how the warning had been delivered. "Cordy, we still have the other thing you wanted to do?"

"Oh, right," Cordy said, as she turned to Jesse. "You can heal her nose?"

"Yeah, I guess," the teen whitelighter said, as he placed his hand over Willow's bleeding face. "There, good as new."

Leo took Cordelia's hand, and orbed her away. When they had vanished, the group sat back down in the living room.

Just as Tara came back from the bathroom - Willow said in an upset tone of voice, "She should have protected Xander better, not hit me!"

Jesse just sighed. He had long ago decided not to pick a side in THAT argument. "So, what are we going to do about Cordy's premonition?"

"Her what?" Buffy asked, not understanding.

"The premonition she got when you touched her," Jesse said. "Because I'm assuming the blonde woman is Glory..."

"What are you talking about, Jesse?" Tara asked her whitelighter. "What blonde woman?"

"Well, Cordelia just said..." Jesse's eyes then went wide, as he looked at the others - who obviously didn't have a clue what he was going on about. "She just said for us not to trust Ben. That he turns into a blonde woman! Glory, most likely. Was I the only one to hear that, before they orbed?"

"What about Ben?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Yeah..." Willow and Tara didn't get it either, as they spoke in unison.

Jesse looked around and groaned in disbelief, as even Giles looked clueless - before retiring to the whitelighter realm up above.

-

White Oak Drive, Sunnydale, California.

The same time

Cordelia finished saying her little spelloutside the Harris house, then turned to Leo. "Okay, that's it."

"I'm not so sure about this, Cordy," the whitelighter said honestly. "Magic can't be used to just cure an addiction like that, you know..."

"Oh, that's not why I'm doing it. Besides, they'll still go through the withdrawal pains, so it's not a free lunch in any sense of the word," the witch answered back. "Now let's go home. I want to see how Xander's doing!"

-

The Harris household, 17619 White Oak Drive, Sunnydale.

A few hours later

Anthony Harris woke up with a pounding headache, from his spot on the couch. And Jerry Springer was playing on the TV, as the middle-aged man slowly got up and headed for the fridge.

Things around here had deteriorated a lot, ever since Xander had moved out. There was no longer any need to keep up pretenses, so Harris and his wife just did what they wanted - and to hell with what the neighbors thought.

In fact, he was so drunk these days that Anthony at times forgot that he even HAD a son...

He just grabbed the nearest can of beer, and took a big swig from it.

And promptly spit it back out.

"What the hell!" He grabbed an empty glass left on the counter from the night before, and poured the liquid into it. "Water?" the man raged.

An hour later, Jessica Harris awoke with a slightly less major hangover than her husband had had. When she reached the kitchen herself, she jumped. "Tony?"

Two dozen empty beer cans and several bottles of alcohol were lying next to Anthony Harris, on the floor. "They all turn to water!" he shouted.

"Tony, what are you...?" she tried to say, before he cut her off. Harris pointed to the last bottle of vodka on top of the fridge, "You do it!"

"Do what?" Jessica demanded.

"Pour me a drink!" Anthony ordered, handing her a glass.

"Fine!" she bitched back at him, as the dark-haired woman took the bottle and poured herself a shot.

"Now drink it!" he yelled at her.

With a nasty look towards the idiot who'd gotten her knocked up two decades ago, Jessica sipped the glass. "It's water?" Jessica looked over towards her deadbeat husband. "Tony, what did you do?"

"I don't know!" Harris yelled. "I could SEE the Scotch in the bottle, but when I touched it...it turned to water!" He waved a hand over the pile of empty bottles and cans. "They ALL turned to water!"

-

SIU HQ, San Francisco, California.

Tuesday, February 13th 2001

1:30 p.m.

"You sure you don't want to?" the woman asked him. "Because I know you'd love Texas, Nash..."

Captain Bridges looked at his soon-to-be third ex-wife. "Tamara. Why are you even bothering?" he asked, as the policeman looked out at the bay. "It's all over. Junior is behind bars, and your gangster friend has left the city. You don't need me anymore."

"Well - we are married, Nash," Tamara replied.

"Expect for that little matter of us never going through with the ceremony?" Bridges asked, amused. "You just forged my signature. And you did it so that you'd have the protection of your old cop boyfriend..."

"Whatever the reason was, Nash, you know I wouldn't mind having you with me..." She grinned at him. "For heaven's sake, you could have it all. A very young hot wife, and more money than God!"

"Tamara," Nash said with a sigh and a headache. "You know as well as I do - that we're good only in small doses."

The blonde woman gave up, as she knew he wasn't going to yield. "Well, at least keep the second car!"

"Second car?" Nash asked her with a raised eyebrow. "You got two kit cars?"

"No," Tamara told him. "I'll admit the first one was a kit car..."

"The one that Junior tried to car-bomb me in?"

"Yes," she replied. "But during all this, my contact in LA got me a real 70's Cuda. It was part of some guy's private collection. I'd say it's in almost as good a condition as yours!" Leaning in to show some cleavage Tamara added, "I already had it painted yellow...you could have a matched set?"

"No," Nash said firmly.

"Fine!" Tamara grumbled. "You can give it to Cassidy, then."

"She already has a car."

"Well - what do you want me to do, Nash?" Tamara threw up her hands. "Drive it back to Texas? There must be someone you know who needs a car!"

-

Halliwell Manor.

6:29 pm

Xander loosened the collar of the Armani suit Cordelia had stuck him into, for their date tonight. (Damn, why can't I get her to ever accept the clothing wonder that is the Hawaiian shirt...)

During the last few weeks, everyone had gone out of their way to make him feel like he belonged again. It was slow going, after all - Harris couldn't have an instant fix like Prue's good luck spell had given Maggie, as he and magic were on really bad terms.

"We got the family photo! At last!" the oldest Halliwell exclaimed, as she came into the room.

"You really think the background worked?" Xander asked Prue, as they sat around looking at it in the sitting room. "See, I've never been a fan of them themed photos. My cousin's family a couple years back had them done all in denim, and..."

"We all looked great," Cordelia said, wearing a light blue casual dress. "The guys there loved us, they even said we looked great!"

"One, they don't get paid if they say they hate it," Xander told her. "And two, most of 'em were too busy staring at your legs to pay any attention to the rest of the photo."

"It's not MY fault that I have great legs!" Cordy told her boyfriend. "Besides, only one guy gets to do more than look..." She gave him a small kiss. "And that's you."

"Really?" Xander teased her, as they kissed again.

Just today, they had been getting back into their whole couple stuff. She had been sleeping with him, yes, but nothing sexual had been going on. They'd just talked.

Everyone looked up, as the doorbell rang. As Prue went for the door, Cordelia called after her. "If that's a demon, tell it to come back tomorrow!" She kissed Xander again, long, slow and lovingly. "I'm busy today..."

Prue laughed, as she opened the door. She was then slightly surprised to see the 30-ish, tall blonde woman who was showing an awful lot of cleavage. "Can I help you?" she asked, as Prue saw the white limo parked down on the street.

"Does Xander Harris live here?"

"Ah, do I know you?" Xander asked, as he and Cordelia came over after hearing his name.

Cordelia instantly didn't like Tamara, after seeing the woman's Playboy-esque body. She looped her arm with Xander and took his hand in hers, "Who the heck are you?"

Tamara laughed a tiny bit at the younger girl's actions. She liked it when the girlfriends of guys got nervous whenever she was around. "You are Xander Harris, right? Daryl's friend?"

"Yeah..." Xander said, briefly wondering if Morris had gone nuts - and sent him a stripper, to get over his blues...

The woman nearly extended her finger and motioned him to follow her, as she went down the steps.

(Oh...please let her be a demon!) Cordelia thought vengefully, as she saw Xander trying very hard not to look at the blonde woman's rear end. "What are you...?"

They reached the street, to see what was parked behind the limo.

The other 1970 Hemi Cuda, freshly repainted once again. This time instead of the yellow 'lemon twist' color that was Nash's trademark, another original color adorned the car's exterior. A light red named 'Vitamin C'. The white leather interior had been kept the same, though.

"Whoa!" Xander exclaimed, as he saw it. "This is the same model as..."

"As Nash's car," Tamara finished for him. "I'm Tamara Van Zant," she said, as she extended a hand to Xander. He quickly shook it.

"Van Zant?" Prue asked surprised. "The old girlfriend of Captain Bridges?" Cordelia and Xander looked at her questioningly. "Remember, Daryl said that she came in the other day - saying that she was married to him?"

Tamara sighed. "One day, I WILL get Nash off of that low-pay civil service job! The guy didn't want my little gift here, and I don't want to have to drive it or ship it back to Texas - so I asked if he knew anyone who needed a car."

Xander was shocked, as she looked at him. "It's...it's a damn good car. But Miss Van Zant - I couldn't even afford half of what this costs, at the moment. Not to mention repair work and insurance..."

"Not a problem!" Tamara told him.

"It's not?" Harris asked her, not getting it.

"Look, kid," Tamara said, leaning on the car. "I bought it for Nash. But he doesn't want it, and I don't need it. My late husband had a fleet of cars down at our place. And he was, just as now I am, the majority shareholder of 'Autoworks of America'..."

A smile. "It's the biggest repair chain in the country! Four of which are in this very city, so repair costs won't ever be an issue after I make one phone call. As for the insurance...as I said, my old hubby had a fleet in his garage. So the insurance people will literally bend over backwards to keep me happy. It won't be hard at all to get you full coverage on this bad boy for...oh, as long as the company stays in business..."

Amused at his shell-shocked look, Tamara leaned in towards Xander - and getting a rise out of the girlfriend. "Now tell me, sugar..." She took out the pink slip from her fur coat pocket. "Would five dollars sound fair, for me to sell you this car?"

"All that for five dollars!" Xander looked at her, 100 amazed.

"My late husband was big on charity," Tamara said. "Well...limited-time offer though, so what do you say?"

Xander had never gotten his wallet out so fast in his entire life.

-

Cole Turner's apartment, San Francisco, California.

Wednesday, February 14th 2001

2:00 pm

Cole Turner sat in the darkened living room. It was St. Valentine's today, but that meant nothing to this particular half-demon - apart from being able to use it, to take the afternoon off from work.

An 8 x 10 image of Xander Harris stared at him from the table. And in Cole's mind, the stilled image seemed to mock him - making his inner Belthazor scream for the mortal's blood more loudly than ever.

"There has got to be a way to kill you. One that doesn't interfere with my long-term plans! And I WILL find it..."

-

Halliwell Manor Kitchen.

3:45 pm

Piper and Leo came in via the back door, with bags of groceries. And they had a big date on for tonight, as it would be their first Valentine's Day together.

"Xander and Cordelia aren't back yet?" Piper asked her sister, who was reading the paper at the table. She was hoping to talk to the young man...

On account of since Leo was no longer available to serve as a bartender at P3, Harris had stepped up to take over the job - as a way of dealing with his troubles, and to make some money while he was at it. The middle sister thus wanted to talk business with her employee.

"Nope," Prue said with a grin. "And I don't think we'll see them either, least not for a while yet."

"Why?" Leo asked her. "They just went for a drive, right?"

"Well, yes," Prue admitted. "But just after you two left, Cordy wanted to know where a good spot was."

"Good spot for what?" Leo asked clueless.

"What did you tell her?" Piper demanded, smelling something fishy.

Prue couldn't help but grin. "I told her how to get to Miller's Bluff."

Piper's eyes went wide. "As in THE Miller's Bluff!"

"Yeah," Prue said with a smirk. "Xander did just get that great new car, so what the hell - they might as well...break it in. I told her about that secluded spot where...ah, you remember why it's so infamous?"

"Oh my God!" Piper shook her head. "We won't see those two again, for a looong time!"

"I know I've been out of the game for a few decades, but..." Leo started.

"Back in high school, if you ever parked at Miller's Bluff - you didn't ever leave there a virgin," Piper told him with a laugh.

"Oh..." the whitelighter exclaimed.

-

Miller's Bluff, California. Six miles outside San Francisco.

A short while later

"Ohhhh..."

As Xander broke the kiss, he unsnapped Cordelia's bra with one hand. (God, am I ever glad I got this car!)

The automobile's top was down, and as the bra was tossed into the front seat - the now-topless Cordelia helped Xander remove his shirt. Then she leaned back in the seat, and pulled her boyfriend into a passionate kiss on top of her.

In the middle of their making out, Xander was shocked to feel Cordelia's hands start to unbuckle his belt, and then both his pants and boxers came sliding down...

(Make that VERY glad!) And soon enough, both Xander and Cordelia were as naked as the day they were born.

They kissed again, and at long last there were no more doubts. No more confusion. No more pain, from past mistakes.

There was only love, desire, and the ancient rhythm as old as Gaia herself...

As with every couple in the Halliwell family line, from the past and on into the future, the two people making love in the back seat of the classic car would face countless things trying to break them up and or kill them. But just like every couple they would weather the coming storm of the future together.

To Be Continued...