See Part One for disclaimer and details. A big thanks to everyone so far who's reviewed and sent feedback, please keep it coming! Now as I alluded to in the author notes previously, there's a section in this chapter that's rather explicit concerning certain...acts which usually take place behind closed doors. In terms of the overall plot, though, there's a reason why this happens here and now - a reason which will be gone into later on in the story. I just thought I'd mention it beforehand for those readers who might be wondering why I've gone this route - trust in the author, the author is good! And now, on with the story...

Part Two: Of Meetings And Relationships

Wolfram & Hart building, Los Angeles

September 12th, 1998

Before he headed down to the security center to find Commander Burke, Knox suddenly had an idea.

It was about time, too, if the truth were told. Knox knew that there were no guarantees of safety from the upper management of Wolfram & Hart anymore: recently, the lawyer named Robert Price had been proof of that. He had let the Senior Partners down, and they had made him eat his own liver both as a punishment and as an object lesson for everyone else at this branch of the firm.

"Commander Burke?" Knox asked as he entered a room full of television monitors, seeing the commando sitting in a chair watching them. "Could I have a word with you about the virus project?"

Burke hit a button on his console, and then turned to face the scientist. "Make it snappy."

"Right. Uh, I take it there's nothing new from that guy Spanky?"

Burke took a moment to visualise the broken and dying man in one of Wolfram & Hart's dungeon dimensions, whom Lindsey, Lilah and Lee had quickly identified as one of Lopez's associates. After he'd been apprehended, Burke had almost beaten Spanky to death with one of his own cricket bats, in order to make the freelancer cough up information – which he unfortunately didn't have.

"No," Burke then said, in reply to Knox's question.

"Well, I was just thinking," Knox said. "If Spanky and Lopez met at the airport, and yet afterwards Lopez didn't have the virus on him when Hauser and his men finally caught up with the guy, then he must have hidden it or given it to someone in the intervening time. And since we've searched LAX top to bottom and found nothing-"

"-Lopez must have palmed the virus off to someone," Burke interrupted coldly. "Don't try to tell me how to do my job. Why else do you think I've been cooped up in here, watching hours and hours of airport security video footage?"

"Right. Sorry," Knox apologized, looking embarrassed. "But the reason I mention it is, I was wondering – maybe the reason the seers can't find the virus is because it was taken somewhere where its signal is sorta being drowned out – y'know, in an area of too much magic? So, so maybe we should look for magical hotspots in and around LA that could hide it, and then focus in on that?"

Burke frowned. "Yeah. That's actually not a bad idea," he admitted gruffly, revising his estimate of Knox's intelligence.

The SWAT team commander got up off the chair. "At the very least it gives us a place to start looking, anyway."

No. 4 Parkview Crescent, Sunnydale

September 13th, 1998

Xander and Cordelia burst into Miss Chase's bedroom, passionately making out. Their date tonight had gone very well, as any disinterested observer could tell from the way they were playing tonsil hockey with one another.

"What-" kiss "about-" kiss "your parents?" Xander managed to gasp out.

"Daddy's working late as usual, and my mom's at the yacht club, socialising. Plus Lupe has the night off," Cordelia replied. She then captured Xander's lips with her own again, as the two teens fell onto the brunette girl's bed.

"Xander..." Cordelia moaned, a suspicious bulge of flesh pressing against her before she pushed him away. "Hey, stop! We need to talk."

"Would it be about something concerning the latest Spiderman treasury edition comic?" Xander asked jokingly, then he ducked to avoid Cordelia's automatic slap to the head. "Just kidding, sweetheart!"

"Well, I should hope so! We're seniors now, and you're my boyfriend. So could you please start acting like it?" Cordelia asked crossly as she got up off the bed.

"The high school senior part, or the Cordelia Chase boyfriend part?" Xander asked.

"Both, you idiot!" Cordelia said, glaring at him.

"Huh," Xander mused. "I'm a high school senior, and I'm dating Cordelia Chase. Kinda makes me wonder how the heck that ever happened."

"What's there to wonder about?" Cordelia asked, calming herself as she started to sit down again. "I mean, your grades were never that bad. And you were never one of the elite, sure – but you were never exactly one of the chess club nerds, either. In fact, I'd say your geek cred has almost dried up completely ever since you started dating me."

"You're right, I guess," Xander exhaled, recalling ancient days when he had hung out with the Dungeons and Dragons crowd – before they had ruthlessly ejected him for being unable to fit in properly.

( At least with all the popular kids, I knew where I stood with them right from the start. ) "So, what were you wanting to talk about?" Harris asked, putting away such thoughts.

"We need to talk about where this relationship is going," Cordelia said seriously.

"Oh boy," Xander said fearfully, as that was the one sentence that just about every male dreaded hearing from the females of the species.

"Will you be serious for a second?" Miss Chase demanded. "Because I've invested a lot in 'us' over the past year or so, and I'm getting worried about you, Xander. The other night, I thought for sure you were going to die thanks to that vampire! If Oz had been just a fraction slower...God, can't you PLEASE take a break from the whole Slayage thing? At least for a little while?"

"Sorry, honey, but that's not an option," Xander said, shaking his head. "Until Buffy comes back-"

"Oh, here we go," Cordelia cut him off, rolling her eyes. Her boyfriend's near-obsession with the Slayer was majorly annoying to her. "Xander, Buffy takes off for God only knows where back in May, and YOU decide to step up and try to take her place?"

"Well, someone had to. The vampires were out there killing and turning people every night, remember?" Xander said with a rather hard tone of voice.

"And so you decided to switch from being a sidekick to a wannabe Slayer, over the summer? Do you have any idea how often I wondered whether you'd gotten yourself killed, instead of enjoying some time off from school with me?" Cordelia wanted to know.

"Cordy, could we please not do this right now?" Xander asked wearily. "You said it yourself, we're seniors – isn't that supposed to mean we've grown up ever since last year? That we don't have to get into a fight about something every thirty seconds or so?"

"Fine," Cordelia said sulkily.

"Seriously, honey, I don't want to fight with you – not tonight, anyway. Can't we just kiss and make up, already?" Xander asked pleadingly.

"Oh, all right. Well, I'm good with the kissing part, anyway," Miss Chase briefly smirked before they started smooching all over again.

Things quickly started heating up and somehow Xander managed to get Cordelia's sweater off, stripping her down to her bra in the process. To this hormonal young man, the sight of the buxom girl's chest was just completely...wow!

Harris wanted to reach forward and unhook the only thing separating him from her – but he figured that he shouldn't, it might be pushing things too far, too soon. That didn't stop him from letting the Chase girl unbutton his shirt and toss it aside, however, as she started kissing her way down his chest, swirling her tongue around his belly button whilst grasping his hips tightly.

When Cordelia lifted her head to look at him, her hazel eyes were almost gleaming with excitement. "Mind if I take off your pants?"

"Uh, uh, go ahead..."

There was no way in the world Xander could say no to that, not whilst his girlfriend had that look on her face – and there was even the slightest possibility that this would be THE night he'd dreamed about, ever since they'd started sucking face in Buffy's basement.

( Lord, I'll do anything you want tomorrow – just PLEASE let me have tonight! ) Xander prayed fervently, shutting his eyes. Even though he should have remembered that in Sunnydale, prayers like that – they often had a nasty habit of being granted. Just not in the way the person praying wanted.

Cordelia beamed like she'd just won the state lottery, before unbuckling her boyfriend's pants and working his zipper open – and then she let out a big hearty laugh.

"What?" Xander demanded, eyes flying open in surprise before he remembered that he was wearing his Transformers boxers this evening. "Okay, never mind; let's just forget this whole-"

Harris cut himself off, squeaking as he felt a sharp tug accompanied by the feeling of trousers slipping away, and his boxers sliding off. The cool air of the bedroom hit his groin and a certain something hardened even further, despite Xander previously believing that to be impossible.

Xander's eyes rolled back into his head as a new sensation, something hot and wet and delicious, encircled him down south. He then jammed his head back against the pillow – because this wasn't a dream, Cordelia's tongue was making his brain shut down completely, and Harris knew he definitely wouldn't last long before he actually...

Cordelia's bedroom, Sunnydale

September 14th, 1998

Cordelia Chase woke up slowly, finding herself buck naked and her head resting on her boyfriend's equally naked chest. She started to panic for a moment, until all the memories of last night came back.

"Hmm, a girl could get used to this," Cordy said with a soft smile, as she snuggled closer for a few moments. But when she glanced over to check her alarm clock, she saw what time it was.

( Damn it! ) Cordelia swore inside her head. "Xander!" the Chase girl then said as she propped herself up on one elbow and shook him. "Wake up, dweeb boy!"

"Huh? Cordy-?" Xander said fuzzily, not recognizing where he was. Then the memories came back for him as well, and his eyes went wide as he sat up. "OH! That, that, that wasn't just another highly erotic dream-?"

"No, we kind of went a lot further than we ever did before..." the brunette female said before she stopped. "Wait – another erotic dream? You have erotic dreams about me?"

"Ah, yeah," Harris admitted. "Along with every other guy that goes to our school – well, except maybe for Larry, I guess." He grinned at her. "Have to say, though, I was not expecting what happened last night."

Miss Chase sat up, but held the covers to cover herself somewhat. "I guess it was just a spur of the moment thing...after that summer of celibacy, and with you back here in Hellville."

"Hey, I'm definitely not complaining," Xander joked.

"Yeah, you sure didn't when I was sucking you off," Cordelia snorted, she'd figured that he would enjoy that. "And hey, that thing you did with your fingers later on..." She shivered. "Trust me, Xander, that is definitely going to happen again. But for now it's time for you to climb down the balcony onto the patio, and then go home."

"Oh, so that's how it is?" Xander joked. "You just use me, and then kick me to the side of the curb? I feel so cheap..."

Cordelia reached down onto the floor, grabbed his underwear and threw it to him. "I'm supposed to get up for school soon, doofus. And do you really want my father to find you in here?"

"Good point," Xander nodded, as he hurriedly jumped out of the bed and started to put his boxers on. "Look at me, I'm more afraid of Mr. Chase than a vampire!"

"Yeah, well, I would be too. A vampire's nothing compared to my dad on the warpath," Cordelia said as she slipped into her bathrobe.

After the guy had finished dressing, he moved to the sliding glass doors at the far end of the bedroom. "Oh, Xander?" Cordelia called out from the bathroom, her head just sticking out.

"Yeah?"

Cordy flashed him a huge smile as she told him, "If you want what happened at the start of last night to happen again...then you better be ready to return the favour."

"Yes ma'am," Xander nodded as he slipped out the sliding doors, very grateful that the Chase parents' bedroom was on the other side of the mansion – thus they wouldn't see him run across the lawn.

Within the bathroom Cordelia was just about to slip out of her robe, when Miss Chase spotted something on the far counter. ( Hey, isn't that the cologne I got for Xander? )

The young woman quickly gave it a squirt on her wrist. ( That smells right, but I thought Xander said he had it on last night? Huh, did I grab two bottles of aftershave by mistake or what? ) Frowning, she put it back on the counter. ( Come to think of it, I didn't smell anything like this on him last night. So, mental note to self – tell the dorkhead to use this aftershave instead, after I give it to him at school later today. )

Cordelia closed the door fully and removed the bathrobe, before she stepped into her large shower. ( Ah, this feels great, ) the Chase girl thought to herself as she stood underneath the shower head, the water cascading down all over her body.

As she started to apply her expensive body wash to remove the various fluids from last night, Cordelia thought back on what had happened during the previous evening. She honestly hadn't planned on going all the way with Xander for a while yet. Not that she was the type of girl that wanted to wait 'til she was married, of course, if Sunnydale had taught her anything it was to live life to the fullest while you still could. Too many of her classmates had just vanished into the night, ever since she was a kid.

The thing was, though, last night was not her first time sexually with a guy – but Cordy was never going to let Xander know that. The senior football player she'd dated during junior year was now long gone, and she hoped never to see the jackass again. It had taken a lot of threats to make sure he never told anyone about their one time together, not long after she'd almost been eaten by the demon called Machida. Of course, it didn't hurt that her father owned the company his dad worked for.

And, Cordelia mused with a grin, Xander had lasted a lot longer than that jerk did.

Despite her attempts to suppress it, the thought of Xander lasting brought up another thought in Cordelia's mind. How long would he last as the substitute Slayer? How long would any of them last – Willow, Oz, Xander and herself?

For roughly the millionth time, Cordelia Chase cursed Buffy Summers for entering her life and making her aware of the real world containing demons and vampires. Although she grudgingly had to admit that if Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, then she and Xander would have never found each other either.

They would have still known each other, sure, but their conversations would have always degenerated into the traditional insults and abuse without the heart-pounding fear and excitement making Xander become sexually attractive to her.

Still, if you had to pin it down for why Cordelia disliked the Slayer so much...it was that thing about how Xander had fallen in love with Buffy first, back in sophomore year. The Summers girl had never returned his feelings, granted, but Cordy knew it was important to remind Xander every so often that the former object of his affections actually preferred a centuries-old vampire to a guy like him.

Cordelia Chase had a brain and used it, thank you very much!

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale

Later that day

Whilst elsewhere Xander was being questioned by Willow on what he had gotten up to last night – thanks to that silly grin she'd seen plastered all over his face – Joyce Summers was trying to get a stuck utensil out of the dishwasher.

The middle-aged blonde woman was the mother of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and right now, she was missing her runaway daughter so much it hurt. Joyce was so afraid Buffy would either call or show up when she wasn't at home, that she almost never left the house anymore.

As noted, Buffy had left Sunnydale back in May after she'd been expelled from school. That had been when her mother had finally found out the truth about the Slayage thing – and in her anger and confusion, Joyce had told Buffy that if she walked out the door whilst her mother was laying down the law to her, not to bother to come back.

Joyce honestly hadn't expected that Buffy would take her words at face value, apart from briefly sneaking in to grab some of her stuff before the Slayer had headed out of town.

( It's all that Mr. Giles's fault, ) Joyce thought to herself bitterly, and not for the first time either. ( For the past two years he's been this huge influence on her, guiding my little girl on so many things without my knowing. He had this, this vitally important relationship with her, completely behind my back. It's like he took her away from me – oh, damn it, Buffy, where ARE you right now? )

At that moment, there was a loud knock at the front door and Joyce looked up, startled. She frowned at the fork she'd just pulled out of the dishwasher and put it down. Then she got up, grabbed a towel and headed for the door, wiping her hands.

In the dining room Joyce paused and looked toward the door, suddenly wondering who might be there. ( It can't be Mr. Giles, surely? Now that the high school's started up again, he's stuck there until at least four o'clock during the weekdays. )

Joyce draped the towel over a chair and slowly went over to the door. When she opened it, there stood Buffy; looking sad, tired and dishevelled after her long bus journey home from LA – and her escape from a demon dimension where she'd briefly been held captive.

Seeing Joyce within the doorway the blonde girl morosely thought to herself, ( Okay, she'll either start screaming at me, or we'll do the whole sweet forgiveness thing. Wonder which one it'll be? )

For a long moment, mother and daughter just looked at each other, without saying a word. Then Buffy and Joyce stepped forward and grabbed hold of each other for a long, tight embrace.

( Oh yeah, there's no place like home sweet Hellmouth, ) Buffy thought happily, holding her mother tight and glad to finally be home.

Wolfram & Hart building, Los Angeles

September 15th, 1998

Another interdepartmental meeting was taking place within Evil Incorporated. The same players were present as before, including the man in charge.

Holland looked around and said, "The Senior Partners are growing impatient for results with regard to the virus project, people. I trust there will be something positive I can relay to their liaison after this meeting?"

"We've been going over a number of magical hotspots where the virus might be hidden, as per Knox's suggestion," Lilah replied with an almost feral smile to the scientist. "In the greater metropolitan area, there's one within a demon nightclub called Caritas, and another in a public library, and another near a movie studio. All of them were a bust, though, unfortunately."

"There were some other places as well in the Hollywood hills; a lot of the rich like to use magic in order to hide what they get up to. No success there either," Lee reported.

"We then spread the search further out in a series of concentric circles, and eventually encountered something about eighty miles north of here," Lindsey said carefully, trying to gauge his boss's mood.

"The Hellmouth," Holland nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, that would be powerful enough to mask the virus from long-distance detection by the seers, especially adding in Mr. Spanky's handiwork. All right, what have we got on who might have gone to Sunnydale that day from the airport?"

"I went through all the plane passenger lists with a fine tooth comb, after the initial screen the same day Lopez died," Burke said. "There was nothing – until we finally found this."

He nodded to Knox, who pressed a few buttons on his laptop. The room's overhead projector switched on, and a three-dimensional image appeared of Lopez brushing by the Chase family – in particular, Cordelia.

"Meet David Chase, his wife Julia and teenage daughter Cordelia," Knox said in satisfaction, as the three-dimensional image began to rotate in the room. "You can see it, right there – Lopez's hand dipping inside Miss Chase's shopping bag. He used her like a drug mule, that clever son of a bitch!"

"Why did it take so long to identify her?" Holland asked with a look that instantly made everyone jumpy – apart from Commander Burke.

"It was damn near impossible to have even gotten this far this quickly, because her name – as well as her picture – wasn't on any airline passenger list. Which in turn was due to the fact that Miss Chase and her family were passing through from Mexico on their way home to Sunnydale, on their own private jet," Burke grated out.

"I see," Holland mused, as Burke then reported on how the very rich family had stopped over in LA because of Mr. Chase's various business interests. Thus giving Cordy time to shop and buy that cologne gift for her boyfriend, and for Lopez to bump into her as well.

The meeting quickly broke up, as Holland beckoned Burke to come with him and his pet seer before Manners released the others to go back to their regular duties. A quick helicopter ride later and they were all on the outskirts of Sunnydale, just beyond the town limits.

"Can you detect the virus at this distance?" Holland asked the psychic, a beautiful blonde woman in a red dress and a black necklace around the base of her throat.

"Lemme concentrate. I'm still trying to reorient myself after you dragged me out of my pilates class without any warning, you know," the woman replied.

"I find that getting hit on the head with a gun barrel helps with that a lot," Burke said menacingly.

"You want me to find this thing for you? Keep your pet gorilla on a leash," the blonde said disparagingly to Holland, after she gave Burke a withering glance.

"Enough, both of you," Holland said disapprovingly, before he focused on the lady in red. "Just find the virus. Now."

The psychic closed her eyes. "I call upon the guardian of night and day, the keeper of the passage. Let my sight flow from what is, to what has passed. Grant me your knowledge of the lost..." she trailed off. "Found it!"

"That was quick. Are you sure?" Burke demanded.

The woman ignored him, looking at Holland. "I haven't found all of it, granted – just a trace. It must have escaped from its container and infected someone."

"Miss Chase?" Burke demanded.

"No," the psychic woman shook her head, finally acknowledging the commando. "Whoever it is, the human vessel is male – I'm sure of that much. But the Hellmouth's interference is such that I can't get anything more."

She saw Holland's look and said, "You're welcome to try using someone else if you want, but any honest seer will give you the same answer I just did. This place..." the blonde gestured towards Sunnydale in disgust. "Even at this distance, it's spewing out some serious evil energy. Gives me the complete heebie-jeebies."

"Well, then. I guess we've got some good old-fashioned detective work to do," Holland glanced at Commander Burke, who simply nodded and gazed at the town built upon the mouth of Hell impassively.

To Be Continued...