The summer after Buffy ran away, the Scoobies patrolled the town of Sunnydale. Xander Harris, the de facto leader at this point, had organized them using knowledge retained from being enspelled the previous Halloween by a 'prank' played by Ethan Rayne, an old former friend of their mentor Rupert Giles. In-between patrolling and working a day job to save money for a road trip after graduation, Xander and Cordelia managed to have dates. After one such date, Cordelia asked Xander back to her place, saying she needed to talk to him about something. Wondering, as any teenage boy would, if it was sex she wanted to talk about, Xander nervously followed her inside. Turns out, what she wanted to talk about, had nothing to do with sex and everything to do with a family secret she'd uncovered.
"Remember last week when Daddy wanted me to go thru my birth mother's old things and decide if there was anything I'd like to keep, before he gave the rest to charity?"
"Yes, you were complaining about it because you had to go into the attic and got dusty. As if we don't get dusty enough dealing with vamps."
"Exactly. Well I found something Daddy didn't know about. Letters my mother got from someone in San Francisco. Daddy said I could have them if I wanted them. Turns out, they were from a woman named Patty Halliwell and she was my mother's twin sister. Daddy didn't know anything about it. Mother had never mentioned having any family, let alone a twin sister. I found her listed in the San Francisco obituaries. She died before I was born. But she had three daughters. Which means I have cousins I've never met before. I can't help being curious about them."
"I don't blame you. I'd love to find new relatives, as long as they're nothing like Tony, I mean."
"No one wants to claim Tony Harris as family, Xander. Anyway, I was checking them out. The oldest one, Prue Halliwell, she works at an auction house and is an authority on estate auctions. We have a couple of weeks before school starts and Daddy's birthday is coming up. I was wondering if you'd like to go to San Francisco with me. I want to get Daddy a present and see if this Prue is someone I'd like to meet. We are family and aside from Daddy and his new wife, I have no family."
"I'd love to. Thanks for asking me. I'd be kinda bummed if you went without me. We've been together more then six months now. I'd like to support you, if you let me."
"I was hoping you'd be willing. I'm kinda scared. What if they turn out to be jerks or something?"
"Then you forget you ever found out about them. Just like I pretend Tony's cousin Martin, who likes to wear tin foil hats to keep the aliens from reading his mind, doesn't exist. I'd like to do the same with Tony, but I have to share a roof with him until graduation."
The next day, they headed to the airport, where the Chases had a small private plane and flew to San Francisco.
"I've never flown in a plane." Xander said, once they'd taken off. "Course, I've never even left Sunnydale, so I've never had an occasion to. One of the reasons I want to do a road trip is to see things for myself."
"Traveling can be fun. I'd love to show you places I've been to. I've been to San Francisco before. We can check a few things out while we're here."
"I'd like that, we can play tourist. The auction you want to go to isn't until four anyway and we'll have a few hours to kill before then. This'll be fun."
Once they landed, Cordelia claimed a car from the rental office and the two set out to play tourist. After visiting and taking pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and other sites, they headed to Buckland's Auction House for the auction Cordelia wanted to attend.
"That's the woman the Buckland website says is Prue Halliwell." Cordelia said, pointing at a strikingly beautiful brunette in her late twenties.
"I kinda see a resemblance. You're both hot brunettes." Xander said.
"I wouldn't have expected anything less." Cordelia answered.
She watched and when the item she wanted to buy for her father's birthday present, a pipe formerly owned by a writer he was fond of, came up, she bid on it. She was able to get it for a little over $500.
"All that for a used tobacco pipe?" Xander asked.
"It's a good deal. It could have gone for more. Come on, let's go pay for it and see this Prue."
Prue eyed the young couple as they approached to pay for the pipe. The girl was nicely and fashionably dressed. The guy less so. They were an odd looking couple and given their age, she was a little suspicious if they could pay. She accepted the credit card the girl handed her and ran it. It went thru with no problems.
"Would you like to have that wrapped or just secured?" She asked.
"Wrapped please, it's a birthday present for my father."
Prue had just finished wrapping it and was handing it to the girl when a demon shimmered into the room and throw a fireball at her. She quickly raised her hand and deflected it back telekinetically. The demon ducked to the side, only to encounter a stake being driven into its chest by the young man.
"Can we not escape demons for even a day?!" The girl exclaimed. "And hey, no one mentioned that you were a witch."