The next night Xander and Cordelia returned to their little house and set everything up again. Cordelia had purchased a small heater since the nights were getting cooler. Once Xander had set their sleeping area up, she turned it on low. If it made the space too warm, they could always turn it off.
Once everything had been set up, Cordelia changed into her robe and than Xander prepared for bed as well. They were both too tired to consider a movie. Cordelia shed her robe and laid down beside Xander.
"By the way, thanks for getting the table and chair, not to mention the mirror, I appreciate it."
"You had a hard time getting ready last time. I just want to make it easier for you."
"I know. I love you."
"I love you, too."
Xander woke a couple hours later when he felt Wolf-Cordy licking his face. When he opened his eyes, she nudged her snout against his face and made a whining sound. He reached up and put his hand on her head and gently rubbed her ears. "I'm sorry I scared you, but I'm ok, I promise. You can relax." Wolf-Cordy studied him for moment, as if trying to decide if he was telling the truth, then laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Xander left his arm curled around her and his hand on her head. "We can both sleep, now."
The next time he opened his eyes, it was to see Cordy's head on his shoulder, still sleeping. He watched her for a moment, then gently kissed her. She opened her eyes and smiled at him. "She's relaxed again, I can feel it, she knows you're okay. I hope that doesn't happen again, but if it does, well, like you seeing me though the wolfing out, We'll see you through the passing out."
"Agreed. We should get ready, you first."
She nodded and got up, completely at ease with her nudity, and went to the bathroom to shower and prepare for the day.
Xander watched appreciatively as she moved. Damn, but she was gorgeous!
He got up too and began gathering their stuff and carrying it out to the car. Once Cordelia finished in the bathroom, he took his turn. They left for school soon after. The day passed uneventfully and soon everyone was gathering back at the shop.
"Xander, you're looking much better," Giles said as they came in.
"Yah, another night of sound sleep helped a lot. I hope I'm not in a position to have to push myself like that again anytime soon. It was not fun."
"No, I don't imagine it would be."
"How's everyone else?"
"Well, I have my last healing session with Amanda and Sherry tomorrow night. Then they're going back to England. I was thinking we could maybe throw a little party, here. To thank them. They didn't have to come all this way to help me, you know." Willow said. "Just pizza and pop."
"That sounds like a fine idea Willow," Giles answered. "Why don't you go order some now. By the time it arrives they should be here."
"Okay."
"Pizza and party sounds great, Giles. We could all use a break."
"Indeed we can, my boy, indeed we can."
Cordelia's last night of her transformation cycle was uneventful, as was the rest of week. Saturday they trekked back to L.A for a fitting of their armor, which to everyone's relief fit well and as comfortably as such equipment can. The boys were relieved to find there were not be another shopping expedition as Giles put his foot down on that, nor would they staying overnight this time, since everything was finished.
Everything seemed to going great, which of course meant something was about to go wrong.
Xander and Cordelia were heading for the library, each had received a text message informing them that a new Watcher had arrived.
They were just down the hall when Cordelia grabbed her head, "oh not now."
"Cordy?"
"Vision. A woman with a metal glove on her arm, shooting lightning from it. She said something to Faith, like 'you're a fool' and shot her with the lightning."
"Come on, we have to tell Giles and warn Faith."
They picked up the pace, just as they reached the library, they heard a woman's voice say. 'He seeks the Glove of Minaghan'. If it's not too much trouble, I suggest the Slayers find it first." In a very condescending tone of voice.
Xander heard Cordelia suck in a breath and knew this was the woman from her vision. He pushed open the doors and said, "Any idea on where we can find this Glove?"
"Really, young man, I don't see what business it is of yours. Who are you anyway?"
"Alexander Harris."
"Ah, one the Slayers groupies. Really, Mr Giles this is what has the Council so concerned. That you allow the Slayers to be distracted by these unqualified children, who have no business knowing of the Slayer at all, let alone fighting."
"Excuse me, the Council has no authority over us. We can chose to fight of our own free will. This is America, even if we were in England, they still wouldn't have any authority over us. Do you know what qualifies us to participate?"
She glared at him. "If you are are referring to Miss Rosenberg's childish attempts to learn magic, I hardly see how that is of any benefit. It will be years before she has enough skill to be of any use."
Xander looked at her for a moment and then his voice cracked out in a whip of command. "Buffy, Faith guard the door. Giles call the Council and confirm her employment." The commands were so smoothly delivered that everyone had obeyed before realizing what they were doing.
"What do you think you are doing, young man."
"You're best bet is to be quiet, ma'am. You seem to be unaware of some recent changes within our group. Either the Council sent you here without information pertinent to your job, in which case they are either testing you or they are testing us, or you're not with the Council. Until we know for sure, you need to be quiet."
Giles stepped out of his office a few minutes later. "She's not with Council anymore. She was fired a couple of years ago for misuse of magic. They've asked us to detain her until a retrieval team can get here. Which will be sometime tomorrow."
Xander reached out and grabbed her, spinning her around, he wrapped his arm around her neck, elbow pointing forward. A few seconds later and she was unconscious. "Don't worry she's fine. I just knocked her out. We need to get her to the shop and keep her there until they can come get her."
"How did you know, Xander?"
"Cordy had a vision. She had some kind of glove on her arm that shot lightning. She attacked Faith with it. We don't have a lot of time until she wakes up. We need to secure her."
They quickly bound her hands and gagged her before carrying out her to Xander's car and making their way to the shop.
