February 4, 2002
The tension in the Lobby could be felt even from the top of the stairs where Anna stood. She rubbed her temples and silently cursed herself by not taking Lorne's advise. He's warned her to be careful not to drink too much and now she had a killer hangover.
"Why haven't we found a way yet?" Angel demanded.
Wesley made no reply. He was afraid he say something he'd regret. He just silently glared at Angel who had been pushing them all too hard to find the key to reversing Anna's spell.
"It's not like we've been sitting around doing nothing," Gunn said getting up from his place on the couch. "We've done nothing but try and find a way to save her since we found out."
"Fighting with each other is not the way to fix this you guys," Fred said. "We just need to take a break. None of us has slept in nearly two days."
Angel looked at Fred as if she'd betrayed him, "We don't have time for breaks."
"We're no good to Cordy dead on our feet, Angel," Wesley said in a tone that would not accept any disagreement.
Before Angel could respond, Connor's cry could be heard on the baby monitor.
"Keep working," Angel said without emotion as he walked up the stairs passed Anna.
"You guys wouldn't have any aspirin around would you?' Anna asked awkwardly, as she wondered where Lorne was. He was the only one she felt comfortable with.
"There's some in the bathroom," Fred said getting up to get the bottle for her.
"Lorne said you were pretty out of it last night," Gunn said with an amused smile.
"He shouldn't have let you drink so much," Wesley said.
"He tried to stop me," Anna said. "Where is he?"
Fred smiled at Anna as she handed her the aspirin and a glass of water, "Out visiting a client."
"Oh," Anna said disappointed.
"He might be able to find some information to help Cordy if these books don't work," Wesley explained.
"I could help with the research," Anna offered. "If one or a couple of you wanted to take a nap or something."
Wesley nodded, "Fred, Gunn, why don't you get some sleep?"
"Thanks, Anna," Fred said as she passed by her.
Anna swallowed the pills as Fred and Gunn went upstairs to their rooms. What Anna really wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there until her head stopped pounding. But instead she sat down next to Wesley.
"What can I do?" Anna asked him.
"Does this look familiar?" Wesley asked handing her a heavy book. He pointed to a passage in it.
"No," Anna said.
"It's a spell of transference," Wesley explained. "It seemed similar to the spell you told me about. I haven't been able to locate the text you used and since you don't remember the exact wording of the spell we just have to find it in one of these texts."
He gestured to the piles of books stacked all over the lobby floor.
"I wish I could remember," Anna said staring at all the books. "It's just that the spell was in Latin, and I just read it out of the book."
"We just have to keep looking," Wesley said handing her some books.
"Does it have to be the same exact spell?" Anna asked. "Couldn't we just use a different spell that may do the same thing?"
Wesley nodded, "I've considered that but since the first spell worked out wrong I'm concerned that using another spell could make things worse."
"It's too bad we can't do a spell to just transport us back in time," Anna said. "Then you could just take the spell book from my bedroom and reverse the spell."
Wesley made no reply, but his mind was busy because Anna had just given him an idea.
--
February 4, 1999
Cordy smiled suddenly as she realized that in a week Wesley would be joining the group as Buffy's new watcher. She remembered it clearly because he arrived before Valentine's day and she'd been full of a dozen foolish romantic notions about Wesley at the time. She was looking forward to seeing him even if it wasn't the Wesley who was her friend. At least she knew it'd be fun to tease him again. Then she suddenly wasn't looking forward to it. She didn't want to hang around and reminisce. She wanted her family. She was suddenly taken out of her daydream by Buffy tapping her shoulder..
"So are you coming?" Buffy asked.
"Where?" Cordy replied confused.
"Patrolling," Buffy said. "You haven't heard a word I've said have you?"
"Do you have a sword I could borrow?" Cordy said suddenly looking forward to being out in the world and fighting the good fight again. She hadn't left Buffy's house since she arrived two days before.
"Sword?" Buffy asked suspiciously. None of them knew if they could trust Cordy. Giles had insisted they all be cautious.
"I'm not great with the hand to hand combat stuff yet, but I can kick all kinds of ass with a sword," Cordy said with a proud smile and then frowned. She missed her training sessions with Angel.
"I figured you could be bait girl for me and Faith," Buffy said.
"Bait girl never gets to have any of the fun," Cordy said and then something occurred to her. "I thought it was important for me to stay put?"
"I figured you were getting cabin fever," Buffy said with a shrug.
"You figured?" Cordy replied.
"My mom figured," Buffy admitted. "Besides, Angel isn't available to guard you tonight and Faith and I have to patrol."
Cordy smiled because she realized she'd succeeded in browbeating him into taking a night off from guarding her. She knew he needed to go home for a while, feed, and get some rest. And going on patrol gave her an opportunity to bond with Faith.
Cordy knew the path lying ahead for Faith, and she wondered if she should try to stop it. Giles kept harping on how she shouldn't mess with the past for fear of ruining the future. But Cordy knew in a week Faith would accidently kill an innocent man leading her down a darker path. She would cause so much pain and destruction for herself and the others around her. Cordy didn't know if she could sit on the sidelines and let it all happen again. Cordy's mission was to save people. Faith could be saved.
Cordy shrugged, "Fine, I'll be bait girl. I'll leave all the fighty stuff to the slayers."
Cordy figured she might not be battle ready anyway. She was still recovering from Anna's injuries. Plus she still wasn't used to being in Anna's body which was kind of a relief to Cordy. She didn't want to get comfortable. She wanted to go home.
--
Angel felt a little guilty and foolish sitting by himself in the mansion. Cordy had somehow managed to convince him to go home and take care of himself. One minute they were bickering the next he was out the door. He knew Buffy was surprised when he told her he was going home for a few hours. He knew she expected him to go on patrol with her leaving Cordy with Faith and the other scoobies. Somehow Cordy had picked up on his need to retreat to himself for a while. He planned to rest up a bit and then catch up with them as they patrolled.
Thinking of Faith and Cordy made Angel worry. He knew Faith made Cordy uncomfortable. After Buffy introduced them, he'd caught Cordy frowning at Faith when she thought no one was paying attention. He knew something concerning Faith weighed on Cordy's mind. He had to get her to talk about it. Despite Giles' concerns about revealing the future, Angel did not like being ignorant of information that could prevent bad things from happening in the future. Angel considered ways of gaining Cordy's confidence as he grabbed his coat and headed to find her.
Angel was horrified by the scene he found when he reached the cemetery. Faith was thrown in his direction and fell unconscious at his feet. He noted quickly that she was alive and then he saw the others. Buffy was standing in front of Cordy in a protective position.
"I don't want to go with you," Cordy exclaimed at the man standing in front of her and Buffy.
She and Buffy were both shocked that Jacob had been able to effortlessly take down Faith.
"What you want does not concern me," Jacob Smith said with finality. Anna never used to talk back to him. He was going to have to teach her a lesson. He stepped forward.
Buffy and Angel simultaneously stepped into action each attempting to tackle Jacob to the ground. Jacob just shoved Buffy to the side. When Angel tried to punch Jacob in the face, Jacob dodged and hit Angel in the side instantly breaking his ribs and knocking the breath out of him. Jacob then stood over Buffy who was attempting to get up from the ground. Before he could attack her Cordy jumped behind him and then quickly hit him over the head with a large brick she'd found. It was a shock to Cordy that Jacob actually fell to the ground in the fetal position blooding gushing from his head. He attempted to get up but was having trouble.
"Run!" Cordy yelled.
Buffy got up quickly and went to check on an unconscious Faith. Angel bent down to pick he up and winced at the pain in his side.
"Can you even lift her?" Buffy asked.
"I have to," Angel side picking her up.
They all ran out of the cemetery together. Later at Buffy's house they all gathered. Faith had woken up and was sitting on the couch next to Angel as Cordy bandaged his side. Cordelia was surprised at how Cordy took charge and started tending to everyone's wounds.
"I guess I'll to the bandaging thing a lot in the future," Cordelia asked herself.
"Yeah," Cordy replied finishing up with Angel and helping button his shirt. "It sorta goes with the job."
"This guy was stronger than anything we've ever seen," Buffy said.
"I don't get it," Cordy said with irritation. "He throws you guys around like tissue paper, but I could take him down with a brick?"
"Maybe concrete is like his kryptonite," Xander suggested.
Cordy shook her head, " The first time I was here I fought with him. He was strong but not invincible. I was able to stab him with some glass and make a run for it."
"Perhaps it wasn't the brick but who used it," Giles suggested.
"So he can't hurt Anna?" Willow asked.
"Oh he can hurt her alright:" Cordy said lifting up her shirt to show them all Anna's bruises.
"How did he even know we were in the cemetery?" Faith asked.
"There is too much happening here that we don't understand," Giles said with an angry frown.
"So I'm guess more research, right?" Cordy said.
Before anyone could reply the house suddenly filled with smoke.
"My mom's upstairs!" Buffy said running out of the living room with Angel following behind.
The others all ran out on to the front lawn. Xander and Willow ran across the street to the neighbors to call the fire department. Cordy, Giles, Cordelia, and Faith stood outside waiting for Angel, Buffy, and Joyce to evacuate. They all sighed with relief when they finally emerged. It was chaos on the front lawn. There was smoke and tons of noise from the fire trunk. They were all so focused on the fire fighters that no one noticed when Cordy suddenly disappeared.
Jacob had his hand over her mouth and said, "Don't fight me or I'll kill them all. You know I can."
