the bits that are centred are memories/flashbacks sort of

It had started off so well, her weekend. She and dawn had arrived in LA just before sundown, unpacked and then gone to Cordy's new apartment. On the way over, Buffy was given the readers digest version of how she found such a cheap place, fully furnished.

"Doyle tried to convince Cordy that he knew a guy, and Tina was all for it, but it took them all of Monday and Tuesday to wear her down! She finally agreed to look at it on Tuesday afternoon."

"Oh, my gosh. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?"

"No, never." Tina giggled behind him, as she watched Doyle sigh over Cordelia yet again. Was he ever going get the courage to ask her out?

"It's perfect. Really, really, it's just … perfect. It's amazing in there. What's wrong with it?"

"There's nothing wrong with it. The previous tenant just broke their lease last week. I don't know how you even heard about it.

Cordy smiled at Doyle, and Tina felt like bashing her head against a wall – were they ever going to get it?

"I like it." She knew her opinion probably didn't count for much, but it was worth a try, and this was a really nice place.

"It's quite a bargain, and the furniture comes with. Do you think you want it?"

"I … I used to have this. I, I was…"

"I guess it's your lucky day…"

"I used to have those, too."

"Me too, Cordy. That's what happens in LA!"

"They'll take it."

"Then things started to get weird. Sunnydale kind of weird."

"I'm noticing more and more nowadays that Sunnydale weird isn't actually all that strange anymore. I mean, look at the similarities: I blew up a school in Sunnydale; I blew up a gym in LA. My best friend was turned into a vampire in LA, and my boyfriend was a vampire in Sunnydale … or is that "is" and both in LA? Oh, it's confusing. Umm what else? Ford! He came from LA to Sunnydale … there are still vampires and stuff. Personally, I think it's me – the more horrible bad guys flock towards the slayer, so it doesn't matter here it go – it will always involve Sunnydale weird stuff!"

"Okay, babe. Whatever you say." Buffy just punched him in the arm, and asked him to continue his story of the week's activities.

Cordy sleeping in her new apartment. The radio on her dresser turns on and switches to 1400 AM.

You always hurt the ones you love, the ones you shouldn't hurt at all…

Some of the drawers on her dresser open and close.

"What do you think you're doing here? You never should have come."

Drawer slams shut and Cordy wakes up. She turns off the radio and tries to turn on the lamp beside her bed. It doesn't work. She reaches for the glass of water on her nightstand and it begins to boil. Her bed is beginning to levitate.

"I just knew this was to good to be true. I just knew it! I'm from Sunnydale, you're not scaring me, you know. No. You're not scaring me. You're not scaring me. Not one bit."

"Cordy! There's something strange going on here!"

"I know!" The girls shouted back and forth for a few more minutes before Tina got up and went to the phone. It wouldn't work. Tina and Cordy spent the rest of the night sitting together on Cordelia's bed, sitting quietly praying that it would all stop.

"Was it a ghost, like we had at school, when … Angelus was there?"

"Sort of. It turned out that – in Tina's words – there was this big conspiracy thing about 50 years ago. An old lady (Maude Pearson) had killed her son and then died of a heart attack. Dennis was trapped inside a wall, and when Cordy tried to evict Maude, she ended up freeing Dennis to save her."

"Wow. LA really is as strange as Sunnydale."

"It's staring to look that way.

"It took about as long for us to convince Cordy to let it go as it did to get her to try Doyle's way of getting an apartment. But Tina managed to do it. Unfortunately, she went back without telling anyone, and Maude tried to make her hang herself."

Buffy gasped, and looked at her cradle-robbing boyfriend in horror.

"I know it don't actually like Cordy, but that is still terrible. Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's alright now. Ironically, it took her being called a bitch for her to get up the courage to do what needed to be done." The slayer began to laugh.

"Only Queen C would take being called a bitch as a complement. Only her. So how did you figure it all out?"

"We didn't. It's not like I have access to police records or anything – we'd need out very own willow for that! It all happened by chance really – Tina got all the info out of Dennis after it was all over. She's quite resourceful, you know."

"But I thought you said the ghost was evicted?"

"Well, we didn't see any harm in keeping phantom Dennis around, and it was less hassle than trying to find all of the ingredients for a spell, and Doyle trying to speak it correctly!"

would you look at that – a decent length chapter! Are you impressed? okay, it's still a little short, but ... i'm not even going to bother making up an excuse...