[Cordelia/Madison, set immediately after Cordelia finds out the truth of Madison's death]
Cordelia's hands shook. She tentatively reached out again until a hand wrapped around her wrist, stopping her.
"Wait," a familiar voice said. "You're not going to flip out again, are you?"
The familiarity gave her pause. She was alive. Again. She had been dead and now she wasn't. Cordelia had hoped that Madison wasn't dead, had almost convinced herself that Madison had left of her own volition, seeking a greater thrill than she could find at Miss Robichaux's. Sure, it would have meant that the school wasn't enough for Madison, that Cordelia wasn't enough. But the truth, while not altogether shocking, was still worse. Madison hadn't left because she wanted to; she had been taken.
Cordelia lowered her hand slowly, letting Madison's fingers ghost over the skin of her wrist, then trail across her fingers as she put her hand down. It occurred to her that Madison, selfish movie star Madison, had stopped her from taking a tumble down the long staircase.
"No," she finally said. "I don't think I'll have another vision."
Madison pulled away and had Cordelia been in position of her normal sight, she would have seen something there that would have given her pause. But she didn't.
"Madison, will you assist me down the stairs? I need to get ready," she said, holding her arm out. She didn't wait for an answer and started moving, forcing Madison to stumble towards her.
The younger woman moved instantly, taking Cordelia's arm with her left hand and placing her other against Cordelia's back. She told herself that it had nothing to do with the Cordelia of it all, that she just didn't want to be held responsible for a death so soon after her own revival. Her patience in aiding the newly blind woman down the stairs also had nothing to do with the fact that it was Cordelia.
If she had given voice to this fact, they both would have known it was a lie. So she said nothing.
"What are you going to do?" she asked instead.
"Kill my mother," Cordelia said immediately.
Madison grinned. She liked this side of her headmistress. "Can I help?"
