Title: Segue
Summary: Cordelia and Xander talk a lot. Giles and Cordelia talk a little. Willow and Cordelia talk some. Tara and Buffy talk. Xander, Cordelia, Willow and a vampire talk too. Even Glory talks. Basically, there's just a whole heck of a lot of talking going on. And one fight (and almost another).
Warnings: none
Spoilers: BtVS:Triangle
Acknowledgment: As always, my thanks and appreciation to Theo for his many helpful suggestions.

AN: It's been several years since I last updated this story. That's bad, very bad, and I apologize. Maybe I'll finish before we all die. On the other hand, maybe I won't (but I'll try).


Part 6: Three's a Company

At the top of the broad concrete steps leading to the polished steel and glass doors of the sprawling and imposing structure behind her, Cordelia turned and sharply clapped her hands together, startling Dawn following too close behind.

"Attention! Attention, people!" She waited impatiently, giving everyone a quick cool look as they quieted down. "Here's how this works."

Cordelia launched into a comprehensive and detailed shopping strategy for this particular mall. She outlined which stores had the best selections in various price ranges, which had the best bargains, which ones you could haggle down in price and which you couldn't and which were just for fun and window shopping. She included those you could slum in and yet still be considered "trendy" (at least for now) and which were so passe as to be avoided by very large distances.

Los Angeles had been quite the learning experience for Cordelia, harsh and painful. It was not one she cared to repeat but she had the sense to appreciate the hard-gained knowledge, developing a renewed confidence in her own abilities. One of the most valuable lessons was she really was as good and strong as she had always claimed to be-but had not always been certain of in early morning moments facing the mirror at her dressing table.

She had learned to become expert at dressing and presenting herself on a budget, maintaining a standard of exquisite style at least as good as when she had more money than anybody else in town. She was rather proud of that because it meant it wasn't the obvious physical beauty and foregone wealth but rather her own carefully honed skill, talent and intelligence which enabled her to be Queen C, erstwhile ruler of Sunnydale High.

Cordelia now believed it was time to give back to the lesser people and share with them the benefit of her knowledge. This was going to be her good deed: she would help Buffy get over the latest big dumb jerk in the way she was most familiar with and knew would work best, because it almost always had for her.

It was nearly a week since Riley Finn, former secret agent of the Initiative and likewise former boyfriend of the Slayer, had disappeared, headed for dangerous destinations unknown. If she bothered to look at their situation coldly and analytically, Cordelia knew Buffy bore some share of the blame in the breakup with Riley. It took two to make a relationship work after all, and Cordelia knew she had done her best to prop Finn up in Buffy's eyes as well as convince the big dumb jerk his girlfriend was worth the effort of trying to win her heart.

But-and her own personal history had confirmed this over and over and over again-fundamentally, in the end, it was always the man who would betray. It really didn't matter much what role the girl might have played. Cordelia could never forget that Xander had betrayed her trust, love and sacrifices, Doyle had lacked faith in her empathy and understanding, and Angel had abandoned the mission and her friendship. Even Gunn and Wesley hadn't tried very hard to talk her out of leaving Los Angeles, despite her vision.

Therefore Cordelia learned not to look at these things too coldly or analytically because she already knew the answer to who the guilty party was. She didn't know exactly what had gone down but Riley must have done something.

It was time to get the rebound off to a good start, to put that guy in the rear-view mirror and receding over the horizon as fast as possible. For this some ate ice-cream, or gooey chocolate. Others cried. Yet others watched every sappy romantic comedy ever made, even the ones with Meg Ryan. Some did all of the above or other things entirely.

Cordelia dressed to kill. Which-no small coincidence-meant shopping.

So before Buffy could get too down in the dumps Cordelia whipped up this little expedition in no time, getting a 'yay' vote from all concerned, sometimes by simply not accepting 'no'. She borrowed Xander's car to fetch Willow and Tara and they met Joyce, Buffy and Dawn just moments ago outside the south entrance of the Sunnydale Mall, near the rebuilt Cine-plex.

Although this excursion was ostensibly for Buffy, both Buffy and Willow tended to stick together and hang back a bit from the rest of the group, while Cordelia led or herded the others through the mall.

Tara steadfastly refused almost all make-up, which befuddled Cordelia to the core. She couldn't understand how it was possible. However Tara did let Cordelia help with clothing styles and colors that would flatter her most, tending toward neutral tones with vibrantly colored accents suggested.

Dawn was virtually Cordelia's shadow, absorbing all the knowledge she could the older woman had to offer. Observing this, Cordelia was strangely pleased by Dawn's attentiveness. With her knowledge of Dawn's presumed mystical existence Cordelia had a feeling she needed to keep Dawn close to be able to protect her better. She knew it didn't make much sense because Buffy, and Willow too she would grudgingly admit, could protect Dawn far better. Yet she was still more comfortable when Dawn was near.

Joyce was tolerantly amused by her younger daughter's fawning behavior, only a little worried Dawn would pick up a shop-till-the-credit-card-melts habit, but she had to admit Cordelia was amazingly self-disciplined and had a sharp eye for keeping within a budget. So she let Cordelia guide them along, only occasionally interjecting her views on the stores and life in general.

Through it all the women shared stories of every incident where the lesser half of the relationship was at fault. On the subject of Xander it was a little awkward with Willow around so Cordelia quickly moved on to stories about Angel, Wes and Gunn.

After quite a large fraction of the day had passed, loaded down as they trudged back to the parking lot, Cordelia could see Buffy was chattier and smiling much more often, and not going on endlessly about Riley. Cordelia was quite pleased and gave herself a mental pat on the back for a job well done.

x-x

With a rustling of bags and clicking of heels Cordelia breezed into the apartment she shared with her ex-boyfriend Xander, carrying a respectable number of shopping bags. Xander jumped up from the table he had been working at and wordlessly rushed over to take some of the load off her. A little surprised by the gracious help, Cordelia managed a quick muttered thanks.

Xander took the largest and heaviest bags while Cordelia dropped the remainder in a pile in the hallway before heading to the kitchen to heat water for afternoon tea, a habit she had picked up from Wes.

Xander hefted the bags judiciously. "I'm guessing you girls had fun?" he asked as he followed behind Cordelia.

Upon entering the kitchen she began looking for just the right tea to cap off this very nice day. She answered without looking up from her search. "Most definitely! Shopping is always a good time. A good way to rid ourselves of the memory of Riley." she interrupted her search to look up. "Oh, Wait a minute. Who's that?" Cordelia asked in mock surprise, feigning an amused forgetfulness, "Why, I've already forgotten!" She flashed a quick smile over her shoulder at her little witticism.

Xander set down his load on some of the chairs, placing one smaller bag on the counter. "Ah yes, trying to get Buffy to shop that guy right out of her head? It worked then?" He casually leaned over sideways and held the lid off one of the ceramic jars, showing her where her tea was, the one she usually favored in the evenings.

Cordelia glanced sideways at Xander with an uncertain look, thanked him again, and took a spoonful of the fragrant leaves. She then grabbed the teapot and took it to the sink to fill with water. While filling it with water she gave him a more calculating appraisal. "Present company included-the last couple of months not withstanding-guys really suck, y'know?" Cordelia huffed with heartfelt expression. "Obviously, Buffy and I will never be best..." Cordelia's eyes briefly lost focus as she tried to phrase her connection with Buffy in just the right way. "Well, anything really. But this is a higher matter."

Xander smiled at her characterization and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "A sisters-under-the-skin kind of thing?"

"Yeah, something like that," agreed Cordelia, "only not sisters. And nothing under the skin. But yeah. Guys suck."

If only for his own safety and peace of mind Xander was wise enough not to pursue this line of discussion, even though he didn't really quite believe Cordelia. At least not entirely. Once in a while, he thought, we guys have our good moments. Instead he nodded sagely and tried to think of ways guys weren't so bad.

Xander grew increasingly pensive while Cordelia waited on the water. Quickly bored of watching water heating to a boil she left the kitchen, sat on the sofa and picked up one of several slick fashion magazines she always left scattered around the apartment. She started to idly flip through the pages while waiting for the teapot's little whistle to blow.

Xander followed her with his eyes then shrugged and returned to the table where he'd been working on crew assignments for the next week. He tried to get his concentration back to the work, but Cordelia's pointed comments distracted him.

After shuffling papers around and really getting nowhere, Xander was still unable to concentrate, glancing up at Cordelia over and over again. He just couldn't stop thinking about her "all guys suck" comment with the "and that most assuredly includes you, Xander!" subtext. He wasn't entirely certain Cordelia had been deliberately directing some of her venom at him but it sure felt as if she had. Unconsciously he began tapping the pencil against the table as he dwelled on it.

More and more over the past month or so, he was realizing, though limited and tenuous, perhaps even temporary, he really valued and enjoyed the closeness and familiarity which had developed between himself and Cordelia. Perhaps some would call it less than friendship, but it was certainly more than mere acquaintance.

Unfortunately Xander also knew it was unlikely to last for reasons he was all too well aware of. He heaved a weary sigh.

Xander had been getting a feeling for quite some time now, a certain gnawing tension eating away at him, distracting him like a big pink elephant in the room, he thought. Or was it white? He wasn't sure. Well, no matter what color it was, the tension was very real to him, it had been following him for a long, long time, and it was getting worse. He knew it was a consequence of something he had failed to do after being caught with Willow.

He didn't understand the wherefores or whys, but he knew if he was going to spend any more time near Cordelia there was something that needed saying, and soon.

He needed to apologize.

He had done so of course, at least in some of the sixty or seventy messages he'd left on her answering machine. But she likely never heard any of them. In her righteous fury it was a certainty she would have deleted any message from him without listening, and if so, Xander couldn't blame her. And leaving messages on a piece of electronics wasn't the right way either.

Here and now, Xander thought it might be possible to live with himself if he didn't say anything at all to her, that in fact it was the far easier of his choices and would maintain the status quo, this pleasant detente between them, at least for awhile longer, at least till she decided to return to Los Angeles.

But Xander knew it wasn't right, and he didn't think it was really doing anybody any good, including Cordelia herself.

As much as he dreaded the very real possibility of destroying what he now had with Cordelia, it was the uncertainty he hated most, the uncertainty that had kept him immobile, both then and now. The nervous tapping of the pencil increased. Xander admitted to himself he was afraid of making the decision, afraid of the possible consequences.

Glancing up at Cordelia, it dawned on him this fear was in large part at the root of the very problem in the first place: his inability to make and commit to a choice. Even if he had made the wrong choice then, it would have been out in the open and might even have prevented the worst of the vitriol and bitterness between them the remainder of Senior year.

Now, such a long time afterwords, he had no idea if it would really help. In raising the memory of his cheating it could very well make things worse, but he was convinced of the necessity anyway. He just needed to work himself up to it. His breathing became erratic as he started psyching himself for the task. Soon, he thought, not right this very moment, but soon. He promised he'd tell her real, real soon now.

Having been a roommate of Xander's for a few months now, Cordelia, without even noticing it occur, had become attuned to the natural rhythms of living with him. All the little mannerisms, the sounds of his movements, the way he would look in one direction or another, all were clues into his moods and what might be going through his mind. The annoying pencil tapping thing he was doing began to register, just like that irritating hitch in his breathing. At first she thought nothing of it and tried to ignore him. But it bugged her and she soon slapped the magazine closed. "All right Xander, What is it?"

Xander, lost in his own world of morose thought, jumped. "Huh? What?" he asked frantically, looking about.

"Pencil," she said, pointing at the offending implement. "Annoying. Stop."

"What, this? Oh, right. Me put pencil down." He carefully laid the pencil down on the table.

"Good." Cordelia nodded and attempted to return to her fashion articles.

"Um, Yeah." Xander chewed on bottom his lip. Now that he'd reached the decision to say something to her and was committed to it he again tried to return to the lists of workmen to be scheduled, which days, which crews.

When Cordelia next glanced over the top of the page she saw him staring vacantly at a point just over her left shoulder.

"Well?" she snapped.

Startled again, Xander took his time to shake his head and clear his thoughts before he answered.

"Well what?" he asked idiotically.

Cordelia sighed and rolled her eyes in frustration. Over the last week or so, there had more and more of these kinds of episodes with Xander. This time it ended. "Xander, just tell me, all right? What the hell is going on with you?"

This was a little sooner than he was quite ready for and Xander squirmed, sucking in a deep breath. This is it, Xander said to himself. Time to man up, because it's only going to get worse if you don't. Okay, here goes...

He stood and began to pace. "Well, I was thinking, y'know?" he began slowly, "This roommates thing, it's working out not so bad, right?" Xander paused and pointed back and forth between them with his thumb. "I mean considering, um, everything. Right?"

Cordelia nodded her head slightly. "Yeah, I guess so. All things considered. It hasn't been too bad. Not bad at all, really." In fact the last couple of months had gone amazingly well, far different than what she might have predicted at the beginning.

Xander nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "And yet-"

Cordelia's eyes narrowed. "And yet what?"

"Don't you feel it?" Xander blurted. He looked at her pleadingly, waiting for her to just get it, but she didn't seem to be catching on. "This thing between us?"

"What thing? What are you talking about?"

"You don't know?"

"No. What 'thing'?"

"You can't feel it? The thing?" Hysterical overtones were creeping into his voice.

Cordelia crossed her arms and shook her head no. "You're getting scary, Xander. In easy, simple words, just start from the beginning. Tell me what's going on."

She waited as he shifted about on his feet, looked around, took a breath and cleared his throat. He took another deep breath and started again, unable to look at her. "Yeah. Right, okay. Starting over. Here it is." He took yet another two quick breaths, stood straight, and tried to look her in the eye.

"I am...I am sorry."

Cordelia blinked but otherwise her expression didn't change. "You're sorry?" she said wonderingly.

Xander's attempted apologetic half-smile faltered. "Yeah. I, ah, I thought you should know that."

"Sorry? Okay, I know I'm going to regret asking," she informed the ceiling before returning her attention to Xander, "but sorry for what?"

Xander frowned. Hmmm. This he hadn't counted on. Here he was, doing the brutal manning-up, being honest, you-deserve-to-trample-me thing and why wasn't it so obvious to her when he was being so obviously obvious? How do you explain the obvious?

"W-w-well," he stuttered awkwardly, now unable to look her in the eye no matter how hard he tried, "For everything. For the-", he shifted on his feet and swallowed hard as he struggled to get out truthful words, "-the cheating. With Willow. All of it. I'm sorry." He tried the apologetic smile thing again. It crumbled even quicker than before.

Cordelia's expression didn't change but this time it was she who didn't look back. "Oh. That."

She was genuinely not expecting anything like this from him. Cordelia set the magazine down beside her and sat back to consider. "So. You're sorry, is that it? For cheating on me?" Cordelia seemed to be tasting the sound of those words and she wasn't liking it much.

"Um, yeah," Xander agreed with some trepidation, brightening slightly to a wary expectancy now that she seemed to understand.

Her voice rose a trifle. "Now you're sorry?"

"Huh?" Xander raised his hands defensively. "Hey, no, no! Not now-"

She flashed him a sudden angry look.

"-No, no! Not just now. I have been. Always. Y'know?"

"No, Xander, I really, really don't know," she snapped. Cordelia could feel her face becoming hotter, flushed.

"Well, that's just it. See, when you mentioned Riley and all, and it got me thinking, and remembering, and...and, well, it sorta occurred to me I never told you face to face. That I was, I mean. Back then." Xander's rush of words wound down quickly. "That I still am. Sorry," he finished lamely.

Cordelia remained silent for another long minute, but Xander could see an ever so slight tension developing in her posture, a tightness around her lips, rising color in her cheeks, a flashing of the eyes; all certain signs of her rising fury.

"If you were really sorry, then you wouldn't have done it in the first place," she stated in such an absolutely icy calm and controlled tone it scared him enough to make him back up half a step.

"Well, yeah, that's a good poin-"

Xander's unexpected reminder of one of the most painful times of her life released a flood of emotions she had thought bottled up, long past, buried and forgotten. How wrong she was!

"What you did-"

She had to stop, the words knotting up in her throat, and closed her eyes tightly. She tried to control herself before continuing. "What you did to me, there can be no excuse. No excuse!"

Cordelia could feel the tight control on her emotions slipping. She couldn't allow this in front of Xander and it was making her angrier that again he could get to her so easily. She did not want Xander to know he could have that much effect upon her. She'd learned it was a mistake the first time she let herself fall for him, and be damned if she would let it happen again.

"I know, I just-"

"You just betrayed me! You cheated on me! You looked me straight in the eye, Xander, and you lied to me! Betrayed me! Nobody does that to me." Cordelia's breathing had become very ragged and she again had to fight to calm herself.

Xander hung his head. Willow had been right after all. An apology was not even a down payment on his penance. He deserved to pay and pay and pay, and keep on paying with guilt and shame, till the end of his worthless life for his transgression. He had well and truly earned it. He wanted to shrink into a little invisible bug and crawl under the carpet were he belonged.

After a few seconds she went on, now so much more quietly than before. "It hurt." She squeezed back hot tears. "You hurt me so much. I didn't think anyone could hurt me like that." She let her head drop into her hands, almost hiding herself as Xander gawked. "Didn't even know I could be," she whispered.

Cordelia recalled the humiliation she later endured in front of everyone at school, but her outlook since then had changed and she now didn't care so much what other people-especially people who were unimportant in her life-thought of her. The physical pain she hardly remembered, and didn't compare at all to some of the things she'd been through in the last year or so with Angel Investigations. But...

"I lo-I believed you, Xander. I believed in you. I thought you were one of the good guys, someone who liked me back. Someone who wanted to be with me. Someone I could trust. Instead you-" A small choked sob escaped her and she hiccuped.

What she now remembered most was the emptiness afterward and the overwhelming loneliness when she was released from the hospital.

Her parents were useless, more interested in their business affairs or social engagements than being with their daughter. Xander had known the household staff better than she did, and they stayed out of sight while doing their jobs. She couldn't go back to the sheep, she found that out the hard way. Xander's friends, who'd become her friends too by that time she thought, were not a possibility.

There was nothing, nothing at all. In the blink of an eye there was suddenly no one she could trust, no one she could rely upon, no one to hold and comfort her. No one who cared about her.

Cordelia had liked the reflection of herself she saw mirrored in Xander's eyes, the way he had seen her, seeing beyond the Queen C 'tude. He had been the only person she knew who could put up with her bitchiest moments or give back as good as he got and still be able to find the hidden 'Cordy'. Without realizing it happening, Xander had become a foundation of her life.

His betrayal had kicked it all out from under her with a sudden forceful brutality that still took her breath away.

Xander looked at her and was seeing her in a way he'd rarely ever seen before, the last time when her joyous smile at rescuing him had crumpled upon seeing him and Willow embraced. She looked so small and lost, so unsure, so vulnerable. It dawned on him what she was really talking about, She had really felt something for him.

Somehow, in their tempestuous, often aggravating and yet always oddly exciting relationship she had fallen for him. And he had been such a blind dolt he'd missed it.

She barked out a single laugh and had to make an effort to stop before she'd be unable to stop at all. "And you think 'sorry' just fixes all that?" She waved her hand dismissively, speaking into the air. "Poof, Xander's sorry, everything's okay now, we return you to your regularly scheduled program. Is that it?"

"No, I, I-," He really had no idea what to say and closed his mouth.

Cordelia stared back at him, waiting for what seemed like eons.

The teapot whistled. She let it sound for a few more seconds then abruptly got up, stepped past Xander, wiping at her eyes quickly, trying to keep him from seeing her do so. She twisted the knob on the stove hard over and let the two-tone noise slowly die off. When she turned back to Xander her chin still quivered slightly, arms held tight across her body.

He tried not to fidget but soon was unable to look her in the eye anymore and resumed a careful inspection of the carpet just in front of his boots.

She sighed. She sometimes tried to convince herself she wasn't but Cordelia was honest enough to know she hadn't always been the easiest of people to be with. But even still... "Was it me, Xander? Was I that bad a girlfriend?"

Xander eyes snapped up. "No, Cordy, No! It was never-"

"Then why, damn it?"

He swallowed hard. "Because I am."

"No," she said impatiently, "I mean why did you do it? Why did you cheat on me?" She wiped her eyes again, this time not caring if Xander saw.

Oh. That.

Xander's gaze slid away from Cordelia, not really looking at anything. His expression twisted as he thought, jaw clenching slowly. It was only the same damn impossible question he'd been asking himself for the last two years.

In one way or another he'd known all along he needed to apologize, a very small token of atonement for injuries he'd caused. He also had a pretty good handle on the reasons it was necessary, as much for her as for himself.

What he still couldn't get his head around, what still really twisted his guts or make him want to take swan dives into empty swimming pools, was why he'd cheated on Cordelia in the first place. Why was he unable to stop kissing Willow? Was it just that he'd simply been a hormonal idiot?

Often in the days just after, in front of Buffy or Willow, he said all kinds of outrageous things about how much she didn't matter to him, had never mattered, how he was over her and on to having a new life full o' fun. But the guilt and shame could get so bad he really thought he might get sick all over the floor and he had to shy away from thinking about it at all.

The times when he forced himself to look hard in the mirror, to stop and really dig deep, he still hadn't been able to come up with an answer he could believe and understand, one which he could point to and say 'There! That's the reason! I did this and she was that and Betelgeuse aligned with Saturn's second moon and the Hellmouth made me do it and so on and so forth and what the hell was I thinking?'.

This time however, unlike before when he could only shake his head in anguished frustration and guilt and just try to make it through to the next moment of his life, this time he really had to figure it out. There would be no more dodging, no more avoiding, not when he could literally feel the pain in Cordelia's eyes heavy upon him. Not when he knew the course of the rest of their relationship from this moment forward hinged upon it.

Why? Indeed, why?

For reasons he didn't understand at the time, and certainly couldn't have explained to anyone, after the lustful, uncontrollable haze of their hidden liaisons had (somewhat) worn off he was shocked to discover he liked Cordelia. Really, actually, genuinely liked her. A lot! And strangely it was something far more than the kissing and the obvious hotness of her.

Cordelia could be fun, exciting, passionate and intelligent. She could be amazingly sensitive and thoughtful at the most unexpected moments, yet so seemingly callous, shallow and self-absorbed at others, and then totally surprise him yet again the next. His heart raced whenever they were together. It was crazy, heaped on top of insanity, with a big helping of bizarro on the side, how his feelings for her had changed so radically in so short a time, from contempt, disdain and hatred to, to...

To what? Admiration of all the things he'd never known before and was learning about her? The endless surprises when they were alone and away from the upkeep of public reputations by the depths and sensitivity she could express? Finding she had a dry quirky sense of humor all her own? A desire to care for her, help her through all the trials and tribulations of high-school, of inattentive parents, of an uncertain future? Trust in shared secrets with her? Amazement at the stength and bravery she showed literally every day. Wanting her to be happy just so she would be happy?

Had anyone thought to ask him at the time, Xander probably would not have used the word "love". He'd never felt it before and couldn't have recognized it. Maybe it had been; he just didn't know. But whatever that something was he'd had with her, he only fully realized how special it was the split second she turned away from him and started back up the collapsing steps of the factory. Something he knew he had irretrievably lost when she told him to stay away.

Xander had also been more than mildly baffled their entire time together, especially toward the end as their relationship deepened, before the cheating and even during. Even when they weren't bickering, little unwelcome doubts would creep into his thoughts, thoughts which would make him wonder why on Earth Cordelia was still with him, why she just never 'woke up' and smelled the moron, the real Xander Harris: King of Cretins.

Sometimes the doubts would be worse exactly when they were most comfortable and at ease with each other, when she let down her guard in quiet, private times together, the times she could be the wonderfully sweet, funny, engaging, thoughtful 'Cordy' never seen in public. It was then it would sometimes occur to him how much he didn't measure up. The times she might give him a private little smile which turned him to Xander-jelly and he suddenly couldn't understand why she didn't realize what a horrible mistake she was making with him.

But she never did. If anything, Cordelia seemed to enjoy being with him even more as time went by, which was totally mind-boggling! It made no sense, not in this universe or any other! It scared him. It would have been inconceivable to him to think the reason might be she loved him, discovering only now. too late, she had. He choked on the knowledge he'd been a far worse shit-heel than he'd first thought at the time.

Although it was always a rush to be with Cordelia, or even anticipate being with her, it didn't mean it was always easy. Before their couple-hood a stream of her most invective tirades just bounced off him like a feather off a brick wall. They didn't any more. She could flay him to the core with a single withering look or biting comment.

Willow on the other hand was soft and understanding. She would always be his uncritical, undemanding best buddy. She was his Willow, his oldest friend. Willow would be his friend even despite her obvious and continued disapproval of his relationship with Cordelia. She was accepting and comforting of him almost no matter what he said or did or how he behaved. It was so easy to be with her, perhaps too easy.

And sometimes there's just being eighteen and all the stupid, horrible things that went with that age: failing into easy bad habits, thoughtless selfishness, always thinking there was something better than what you already had right in front of you, avoiding hard choices, never taking responsibility.

As a very young kid Xander sometimes imagined the kind of person he would like to be-an amalgam of caricature heroes he saw in the movies or comic books: brave and stalwart to a fault, dedicated, strong and silent, thoughtful and generous, forthright and honest. He truly wanted to be that. He was also painfully aware he wasn't, not even close, that he was his parent's son.

Could any of it be enough to explain the 'fluke'?

How do I explain everything in a way that would make sense to her? he wondered. Heck, he wasn't even sure it made sense to him. How to explain he had fallen short, wanting, deficient despite idealized best intentions?

She was still waiting for an answer.

Xander opened his mouth to start at the beginning, to see if the telling of it would somehow create an understandable whole. "I-"

But he couldn't say the words. He shook his head violently. There was no acceptable explanation, he realized. Everything he remembered, the confusion, the wonder, the ease of Willow's company, heroic behavior and better intentions: none of it was worth a damn thing!

In the final analysis he understood he was falling back on easy lies and pat rationalizations. He'd had clear choices, and the opportunities to make the right ones. He simply had not.

He shrugged and sucked in a deep rattling breath. "What can I tell you, Cordelia? Being with you was the just about the most incredible time of my life and I totally messed it up. I-I was not the person I wanted to be, not the person you deserved to have. I know what I did can't be undone and it can't be fixed. God knows I never meant to cause you pain, but I did anyway. As for why...young and dumb and Xander is about as good a reason as any I can figure out. For whatever it's worth, Cordy, I truly am sorry."

He waited for the punishment he knew was his due.

"And so here we are," said Cordelia, finally breaking the silence. "You're 'sorry', Xander?"

Xander wasn't sure if she was putting sarcastic air-quotes around that or not.

"Kinda' late, don't you think?"

Okay, now there was definite sarcasm dripping on the floor. Xander shuffled his feet before answering and shrugging, then started rubbing the back of his neck again as he spoke haltingly. "Well, I, ah, I did try and call. I don't remember everything I was saying, y'know? Must have been a hundred messages I left on your machine. I didn't have anything figured out, that I should have told you in person. When I finally did, you weren't ready to listen, and it-well-it just seemed best to leave it that way. I mean, with the hating and stuff. I earned it."

That made her think for a moment. She had to admit her anger, fully justified she thought, never would have let her accept any kind of repentance or apology from him. Her wounded pride would not have allowed her to listen to anything he had to say. But though her anger was justified, she had since learned pride can a funny thing. It sometimes makes a bad situation worse than it already is, sometimes not allowing you to even conceive of a way it can be made better.

After all she'd been through, the heartache of a broken teenage romance just didn't quite stack up as it once did. It still hurt and still made her angry if she dwelled upon it, but she was now able to put it in a context that also included good memories and experiences with Xander.

As Cordelia looked upon Xander, miserable, plainly and truly remorseful, Cordelia knew she could say anything to him, deliver any insult, make any accusation, place any demand upon him, and he would gladly accept it, abase himself in any way.

It's certainly tempting, she admitted to herself.

"Now what?" she asked instead. "Are you expecting some kind of forgiveness?"

"No-o-o," Xander cautiously said, "Ahh, that, uh, that I think would be going too far. I don't think I, um...deserve that."

She was uncertain if he was making a statement or asking the question. The concept that she might actually be capable of forgiving him his actions was disturbing, even as she realized in action she already had done so since Graduation. Actually saying it though, making it clear to him, well that was a hurdle all its own. She just didn't know if she was ready yet. She didn't know what more was needed or what more had to change for her to be ready for forgiveness. She looked up when she realized Xander was still speaking.

"I mean, it would be great if I could fix this somehow, to put all of it right some way, but I don't see how I could possibly make up for-"

"How if I get to shove a bar through your gut?" Cordelia said with a healthy amount of vindictive enthusiasm.

Xander looked shocked, his eyes practically bulging. Was she serious? Ye' cats!

"Errr...would that really make it better?" It crossed his mind it was probably a good thing they weren't doing this at one of his construction sites, with rebar, bolts, nails and scrap lying everywhere.

Cordelia settled back and actually smiled a little. She honestly believed he might go for it, and as tempted as she was, well... "No, I don't. So you can calm down." She stepped in front of him and laid her hand on his arm. "I guess 'sorry' is at least something."

"It doesn't seem like enough," he argued. "It isn't enough!"

"No-o-o, maybe not," she demurred. He still seemed ready to make the sacrifice but she refused to let herself be tempted. "But it's a place to start."

Xander bowed his head. Cordelia made a decision she hoped she wouldn't regret.

"Okay, you've apologized. Apology accepted. Terms of Forgiveness still to be determined. So what does this mean now?"

He looked up. "I want you to be happy, Cordy, and I'll do whatever you need for that. If you need me gone and out of your life right now then I'm on the next plane to Timbuktu."

Cordelia smiled. "That's probably not necessary, but I'll keep it in mind. And it hardly seems fair to the Timbuktu-ans."

Xander seemed relieved. "If it's somehow possible, if things could be good between us?" he ventured.

"Well, they certainly aren't bad, right?"

He nodded.

"So where are we, then? Just roommates?"

Xander gave a slight shake of his head. Not a denial, but an admission of ignorance. Roommates? Was that all? He didn't know, he really didn't know after everything that had just happened. But maybe...

"A work in progress?" he hesitantly asked.

She thought for awhile, then slowly her smile widened to a grin and she nodded her head. "Yeah, I like that." Cordelia put out her hand, took Xander's when he finally put out his, and give it a soft squeeze and gentle shake.

"We'll work, and we'll see where we progress."

x-x

"Y-you're quite sure you're up to this?" anxiously asked Giles, leaning over to examine Cordelia's work.

Cordelia deigned to look up from the paperwork and respond with a glare and subtly arched brow.

Giles straightened up immediately, restraining himself from taking a step back. "Err, yes, quite. Well, then. Then, ah...right." Giles pursed his lips. "So I guess that's it. I'll be back in a week. Don't forget the delivery tomorrow from House of Wonderments."

"Of course not, Giles," Cordelia answered, allowing a tinge of irritation into her voice, "I placed the order."

For the hundredth time that afternoon Giles patted his coat just over the inside pocket, assuring himself the trans-Atlantic ticket was still there. "Well right. Then I'll be off I suppose."

"Have a nice trip. Learn things," she called sweetly.

Giles paused uncertainly at the door and looked back to see Cordelia already hard at work again. He wanted to pass on yet more words of advice then wisely decided against it. He shut the door softly and was on his way.

Cordelia, though a touch anxious herself, was more than certain she could handle the Magic Box in Giles' absence. She was even looking forward to it, and in any case would never admit she wasn't capable.

Cordelia had been working at the shop for quite some time now. As self-nominated Assistant Manager she had not only done her fair share of the scut work but also very significant executive decision making. The clear success of the Magic Box was as much due to her effort and input as it was to Giles. More interested in the watching over Buffy and Dawn, and paging through moldy books, Giles was more than happy to let someone else actually run the business for him. Looking back he knew he was fortunate Cordelia had wedged her way into that part of his life.

As Cordelia grew into her role she decided she rather liked the idea of being a business woman. She hadn't completely abandoned her original dreams of making it big in Hollywood, but she was beginning to also have little daydreams of being a Titan of Industry, a real mover and shaker.

Of course she'd be attired in only the latest chic and most expensive business suits and dress styles from Europe. She would order her underlings about and contemplate her empire from a corner office with a view. Nothing but first-class travel and five-star hotels as she jetted about her empire on business trips.

Even if the industry was a bit esoteric (okay, downright bizarre) and small potatoes like magic curios, a Titan was still a Titan! It might be worthless trinkets and weird plant roots today, but she had ideas on how to expand. She had even gone so far as to check out UCS offerings for business classes.

Of course, world-saving came first, but there was no reason her day job couldn't be done with style and panache, she figured. You could help save the world and be poor, or help save the world and be rich. To her there seemed no reason to prefer the former.

x-x

"Oh, Scab-"

"Scrad, Your Wonderful Infallibleness." Scrad ducked his head obsequiously.

Glory's eyes snapped around to land fully on the little gnome-like creature with scaly, scabby skin. "You look like a scab, therefore you're Scab!"

"Of course, most Indescribable Greatness." Scab fawned and bowed some more as he stepped back. He stopped and even relaxed a little when Glory settled down into the tub.

"Tell me more of our progress," she commanded airily. Scab's eyes drooped down. "There has been progress, yes?"

"We have several very promising leads-"

"I think we should get more help from the local denizens. Perhaps look into recruiting some. There must be some incentives we can give them?"

Scab tried to smile his agreement but it quickly turned into a frown. "We have tried, oh Light of The All Knowing of, ah, of Everything, but even the resident demons hereabouts who dislike humans don't see any advantage helping you destroy this world and everything in it."

"Why would they think that?" asked Glory, genuinely perplexed.

Scab paused to see if Glory seriously didn't get it. She may be all-powerful, but it was clear to even her most ardent followers she was much less than bright.

"It seems at least one or two of them know the story of the Key and what it's used for. Word gets around."

"Hmmm." Glory purred as she thought about this.

"Might I suggest-"

"I do the thinking around here, you little bat turds! So let me think!" Glory settled even further back in the tub, swirling some suds around. She chafed, struggled and raged against this abominable physical human existence she was trapped in, but warm bubble baths were a small consolation. She would have lots of them built when she returned to her home dimension.

But without the Key in her grasp she knew it was impossible to return to her dimension. The irritating but surprisingly strong little human girl must be tied up with it somehow. Even she was bright enough to see that the brethren of Keepers-the now-extinct order of monks who had somehow acquired the Key-must have picked this most dangerous location for a very good reason.

x-x

"You break it, you buy it," Cordelia absently called from behind the main counter before returning to her affairs.

In a strictly short-term practical sense, Cordelia would admit Glory's lurking presence was good for business. The numbers in front of her didn't lie. The Hellmouth's normal effects, combined with all of Miss Indiscriminately-Destructo-Gal's shenanigans, was causing general supernatural badness to trend up.

The town's human and even not so human population naturally gravitated towards magic and spells, witchcraft, the occult, and demonic lore and prophecy as a means to provide something which might help ward it off. Since the Magic Box was virtually the only game in town, and Cordelia had done such an excellent job letting everyone know that very fact, this meant business also trended up.

On the other hand, Cordelia knew Glory had to be eliminated. If not for general world saving purposes there was herself, Xander, her friends, and Dawn to consider. She just had to figure out a way to keep the customers coming back after Glory was gone.

Although Cordelia was sure they would eventually prevail over Glory in some fashion, it worried her they still really had no idea yet of what they were up against, or even what Glory intended. Hence Giles' trip back to England and the Council. He may be on the outs with them, but he had the only sane, active slayer around-Cordelia unconsciously touched her cheek where Faith had struck her-on the Hellmouth. Surely the Council would see reason and provide some help?

One way or the other, Glory was a problem, a real poke in the newt's eye. With the ultimate goal in mind she thought it a good idea to help Willow and Tara find a way to stop Glory. Cordelia was even allowing the witches to experiment with some of the store's inventory, looking at the expense as an investment. It was the best investment of all, one that could save her life, one that would save Dawn's.

Tara glanced at her watch. She did a double-take and looked more closely before quickly standing up, almost knocking over the heavy chair, announcing, "I've got class. Should we wrap it up?" She began gathering her scattered books, loose notes, highlighters, pens and general student debris into neat piles, ready to drop into her UC Sunnydale "Sunshine Good" backpack.

Willow, excited about the progress they'd made so far, frowned as she watched her girlfriend gather together her stuff. "Oh darn. I guess-"

Tara put out her hand to forestall Willow from getting up. "No, wait. You keep going. Please!" When she saw Willow's frown deepen in indecision, half wanting to stay and half wanting to leave with her, she said, "But we'll still meet at the coffee house and go over everything before we head up to the coven, okay?"

Only somewhat reluctantly, Willow agreed. She gave Tara a kiss goodbye and was back at work with no small measure of enthusiasm before Tara was even fully out the door. She was quickly engrossed in the work again and hardly noticed the time passing by. According to their notes and research, and the promising results so far, she felt they were really onto something.

She mixed the last of the items together into the twice-blessed crucible, then carefully poured a small quantity of the smelly liquid into the palm of each hand. She held them together and whispered the words from the incantation she and Tara had been working on. There was a slight pop in the air and the lights dimmed for a moment. She even felt a "push" or distortion in the barely perceived field of surrounding supernatural energy.

Willow frowned. Apparently nothing had happened. After carefully looking around to verify that indeed was true, Willow's initial elation turned into a sullen and disappointed, "Oh fudge!" She grabbed up some paper towels and began cleaning herself off.

x-x

Tara arrived, as usual, well before the professor had arrived. Her pens, pencils, highlighters and notebook were neatly placed on the swing-out desk and she had the course book turned to the most recent subject the professor had reviewed the previous class.

Even though Tara made sure to save the seat next to her for Buffy, the Slayer bustled into class just as the professor was getting started, earning her the usual tired sigh and resigned look from him. Moreover Buffy and Tara didn't get a chance to thrash out the gossip of the day during class.

After class they walked alongside each other when Buffy realized Willow hadn't met them afterward.

"Where's Willow?" Buffy asked as she craned her neck, looking this way and that. As close as Buffy was with Tara, she really wanted to talk with Willow. Despite the shopping trip, she was once again in some serious need of wallowing in the ongoing post-Riley emotional roller-coaster ride, and there was no one like Willow to weep, whinge, and wallow with.

"Oh, we're supposed to meet at the SCoHo," Tara answered, referring to the on-campus Sunnydale Coffee House, "Xander's going to give us a ride to Coven San Cueller-on-the-Cliff."

Buffy did a double-take. "Wa-huh? I'll bet you can't say that ten times real fast!"

Tara ducked her head and smiled shyly, shaking her head. She saw Buffy get a distracted air about her as her eyes focused onto distant nothing. Obviously Buffy was trying to recite the coven's name ten times real fast in her head.

Tara giggled quietly for a moment. Buffy could be just so weird!

"They have some old manuscripts or something that might help us with the anti-vampire spell we're trying to create. And they agreed to help. So off we go."

"Mind if I tag along?"

Tara shook her head that she didn't and they proceeded across campus to the SCoHo to meet up Willow.

x-x

The spell was still missing something and Willow was darned if she wouldn't figure out what it was.

She really wanted to show Tara how good she was at the magic. She flipped through several more pages of the book in front of her, mumbling some of the passages. Her eyes widened when she found one which seemed particularly relevant, describing an event from hundreds of years ago when a Spanish conquistador seemed to achieve a result very much like what they were trying for.

Willow re-read the passage, translating the mixed Spanish and Latin in her head, softly speaking it aloud. "... sword of iron ... casting upon the flame ... gathering ashes ... to add ..." Willow sat back, her forehead wrinkling in concentration as she tried to decipher the meaning.

"Iron. Flame. Ashes. Hmmm." She repeated the words to herself like a mantra, sitting back and closing her eyes.

She tried to apply the techniques Giles had been teaching her about divining the meanings of ancient texts, how to tease out the inner nuggets of useful truth buried within the chaff of falsehoods, self-serving exaggeration, and useless tripe. She quickly ran through several ways to think about the semantics and context of the words and soon hit upon needing ashes of burnt iron.

She smiled beatifically when she suddenly understood what the confusing words were saying to her, what key item might have been missing from the original brew she and Tara had started with.

"Ah, Cordy?" she called out, "Do you have any ferric oxide?"

"Farrah-what-side?" Cordelia answered from the counter. She got up and came around to the table Willow was working at.

"Ferric oxide. You know? Rust. Do you have any rust in the shop?"

Cordelia looked offended. "Willow, look around you. Does it look like I'd allow any rust in my place of business?" Cordelia glared her challenge, hands on planted on her hips.

"Hmmph." Willow tapped her finger on her chin as she thought about sources of rust. "Can I check out the basement storage area?"

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Be my guest."

Several minutes later a triumphant Willow returned, carrying an envelope full of reddish-brownish-orangish flakes and powder. "Iron sewer piping and brackets." She gave Cordelia a smug smile and hurried over to the table to pick up her casting and concocting from where she left off.

"Whatever," Cordelia sniffed. "What exactly am I letting you use our valuable inventory for, anyway?"

Willow looked up at Cordelia's question. "It's an idea I-we, that is Tara and I had. To help fight vampires. You know they burn up in the sunshine, right?" She dumped the old contents of the small clay bowl they were using as a crucible into the small trash can under the table and began carefully cleaning it out with sassafras leaves and holy water, getting it ready for another try.

Cordelia impatiently nodded. "Yeah yeah: direct sunlight, wooden stake to the heart, cut off the head, fire," she said as she ticked off the points on her fingers. "Got it all. Crosses and holy water hurt but don't kill. Willow, I've been doing this nearly as long as you have. And I worked for Angel."

"Sorry." Willow shrugged. "So anyway, we were thinking what if we could create some sunlight of our own whenever we needed it? We could just like, say 'Cheese!' and Poof! Break out the brooms time!"

Cordelia cocked her head thoughtfully. She didn't know if Willow could actually pull it off. It seemed like such an obvious idea that someone must have tried it before. But even if Willow was never going to be a good friend, she had to admit Willow was one of the smartest people she ever knew. "Okay, sounds good so far. What's the hang-up? Why hasn't anybody else abra-cadabra'd a sun before?"

Willow started re-arranging and re-mixing the extra material she and Tara had collected, keeping the small pile of rust separate until it was needed. She answered as she worked. "Well, partly I think it's so obvious that it just never crossed anybody's mind to try it. Y'know 'sunshine' and 'daytime' go together, but not 'sunshine' and 'nighttime' and-"

"Okay, enough word association games, Miss Freud."

"Ah, yes. Okay. Mostly, sunshine is just pretty complicated stuff. We don't know which part of it, or what combination of parts, actually does the trick of making the un-dead become dead-dead. So a big flashlight might make them blink, but no flamy-ness."

Despite herself Cordelia was actually curious about Willow's notions. "And that's what you're doing here? Trying to figure out how to make the right pieces of the sun?" She puzzled over it for a moment, but something still didn't sound quite right. "I don't know, still seems there must be a catch there somewhere."

"Well not the whole Sun, but maybe just a small piece of it. And just for a moment. Because, I mean, if we really brought the sun here, then WOAH! We'd melt everything, including ourselves, and then what would be the point?

"So Tara and I got some ideas," Willow explained, indicating the books and journals and hand-written notes in front of her, "But mostly we're working from first principles of physics and magic and primal forces and kind of blazing a new trail on our own. It's really kind of exciting! I mean, who knows, maybe someday there'll be a book of magic and spells by Tara and me. We can't always rely on the ancients, right? We're smart too."

As she stirred in each of the new items with a twig from a pine tree, she said, "And then we'll have to test it at full scale, I guess." Willow frowned slightly then beamed. "Oooh, that might get interesting! Probably have to go out into the desert so nobody gets hurt if, well, if there were too much sun. Hey, road trip!" Willow said brightly.

Cordelia pointed at what Willow was working with. Willow laughed "Oh, no this is just a tiny itty-bitty bit. It won't be any more than a match. If my calculations are correct." Willow's enthusiastic smile fell, returning full force with false bravado.

"You're just a wild and crazy fun machine, Willow. Make sure to forget me when you guys go tripping."

Willow made an exaggerated and mocking pout. "I'm sorry Cordelia, there won't be any malls for, oh, maybe 25 or even 50 miles. We'll miss you.

"Any way, even after today there's still some help we need from the coven. Once Tara's done with her class we'll be heading out there. So far everything is too slow, we'd be dead by the time we got everything put together just right. And it's not stable. Once things are set we'll have only a few seconds to say the final words and-"

Cordelia was already bored by Willow's enthusiastic nattering. "Okay, fine, Willow, great. Go for it. But you break it you buy it." She flipped her hand and went back to far more interesting things, such as inventorying the vulture warts.

Willow returned to carefully comparing the two texts before her, one a high-level academic journal article on precise historical changes in the sun's emission spectrum over the last several sun-spot cycles, and the other an ancient book with a chapter devoted to conjuring up light in a time of dark. There was a third book on chemical compounds and signature spectra, and a fourth very large compendium of ingredients for potions, spells, glamours, poisons, etc. Willow was taking each step very carefully, she wanted to get this right.

x-x

"Xander!"

Xander whipped around, sloshing mocha on his boots. He didn't really like the coffee part all that much, he just wanted the hot chocolate-y goodness part (and the whipped cream topping), but a mocha no-whip sounded somewhat more manly than just hot chocolate, or so he thought. He was keenly aware of the importance of manliness with all these hot young co-eds about, even if he was much better on the theory than the actual practice of said theory.

Buffy laughed as she snatched some napkins on her way past the counter and began dabbing at him. Xander's keen manliness sense was telling him this also was not too macho but at least no one knew the Buffster wasn't his girlfriend. He tried to smile in a knowing leer, hoping to make the guys around him jealous. Still, he did his best to get the napkins from her.

"What are doing here?" asked Buffy, finally letting Xander do his own clean-up. She stood on her tip-toes and tried to scan the whole room over everybody's heads. "Where's Willow?"

Still dabbing at himself, Xander answered, "I was supposed to meet her here. I guess I'm playing chauffeur for some little jaunt?" He glanced at the mantle clock over the fake gas fireplace still burning despite an unseasonably warm day outside. "Guess I'm a little early." He smiled sheepishly.

"And that has nothing to do with extra time to check out the girls in shorts and tanks, does it?" Buffy knew her Xander well.

Xander looked hurt even as he took one last perusal of all the long tanned legs everywhere. Southern California in the winter could not be beat! "Moi? I'm far too gentlemanly than that!"

"Uh huh. A horny unattached gentleman." She laughed to take the sting out of her comment.

"Maybe she's still at the Magic Box? Seemed like she and Tara were neck deep in some pretty complicated voodoo-hoodoo or something."

"Willow's still at the Magic Box?"

Xander took the time for a noisy slurp of his now tolerably cool drink. "Yuh huh, I guess."

Now Buffy looked a little worried. "You left Cordelia and Willow alone?"

"No, Tara was with-"

"No she isn't," announced Tara from behind him his right ear, arriving from her side trip to the bathroom.

"Tara!" Xander took a moment for his heart to calm down as both girls laughed at him. "Tara, it's you! And you're here. And not there," observed Xander most intelligently, waving vaguely somewhere off-campus, "with Willow."

Buffy leaned toward Tara conspiratorially. "What do you think? He's smart enough for college now?"

"With honors!" agreed Tara.

Xander ignored that. "Well okay, so maybe they're alone. What's the dire? C'mon Buff, you don't think...I mean, it's been a long time and..."

Buffy grabbed Xander's hand. "Let's go!"

"Yeah!"

Tara didn't understand why they seemed in such a hurry but she ran after them as they headed for Xander's car way off in the visitor's parking area.

x-x

Willow sat back in her chair, closed her eyes and stretched her arms way above her head. Looking at her watch she decided it was a good time for a short break from the ancient texts and modern formula. Stretching her neck by rolling her head about she spotted Cordelia fussing around the shop. It suddenly occurred to her this was the first time she and Cordelia had ever been alone together since the cheating incident. It also reminded her Cordelia was now actually living with her best friend and she frowned at the thought of that particular pair of roommates.

"So, how are things going with you and Xander?"

"Oh, fine, fine." Cordelia answered absently, not really hearing Willow's too clever, inquisitive tone.

"Yeah, with all his messy habits and stuff, it must be really annoying I would think?"

"No, not at all," Cordelia said, now giving more attention to the topic. "He's actually grown quite nicely." She smiled slightly to herself.

She'd initially answered that way just to disagree with Willow because, well, why the hell not? With a bit more thought she realized it to be the truth. He was still an annoying goofball at times, and the humor was as lame, ill-timed and inappropriate as ever, but the last couple of years had smoothed off the worst of it. He was actually quite pleasant and fun to be around, even in public, and she generally enjoyed his company when their schedules allowed them to be together in their apartment.

The aftermath of Xander's apology almost put a permanent crimp on that. Despite-or because of-his apology and her acceptance there had begun several days of a strained and overly polite awkwardness between them. It was obvious to her he was walking on egg shells whenever they were together, and in sensing that it thus made her likewise tense and uncertain how to act. A vicious cycle built up until they conversed in only the most polite yet minimal words possible for two people living in such close proximity.

A simple, trivial incident a few nights ago changed everything.

It had been the end of a long day on the site and she was nowhere around when Xander returned to the apartment. After grabbing a slice of cold pizza from the fridge he hauled himself over to the sofa and plopped down.

He picked up the remote and began channel-surfing, hoping to maybe find a basketball or football game he could work up a tepid interest in until he finally fell asleep. After flipping past a few annoying infomercials on music collections of the '40s or melting off 40 pounds in 40 days he landed on a presentation of Casablanca just as it was beginning.

Not a huge fan of the black-and-whites, he was about to hit the channel button again but stopped and considered before finally setting aside the remote. For all his eclectic tastes in movies, and despite having seen so many classics, he'd never seen this one.

As a matter of sheer coincidence, at the same moment Ingrid Bergman was making her on-screen appearance Cordelia also made her appearance from her room. She'd only intended to get something to drink when she saw the scene playing on the set and Xander watching avidly from the sofa. Her curiosity was piqued both because she hadn't seen the film either and that Xander seemed so engrossed in something without spaceships or death rays or Tokyo getting trampled by yet another rubber-suited monster.

Instead of heading back to her room she dropped down beside him.

"Hey," he greeted her carefully. "Change it if you want, I'm not really watching." Although he clearly was.

Cordelia waved him off. "No. No, this is good." She tucked her legs up under her as she settled in, her shoulder brushing against Xander's when she wiggled a little to get more comfortable. Except for one break when he got up to nuke some popcorn and she some peanut butter, she remained next to him, her weight gradually settling more and more against his side as the story in the hot desert city unwound.

They were very close to each other, comfortable, all tension magically melted away for the entire movie. They chatted about the characters and which ones they liked or didn't, repeating some of the lines to each other during the commercial breaks. He usually took Bogart's lines, she Ingrid's, cracking each other up with awful overdone renditions.

The easy give and take was much like old times when they were at their best together. The relaxed atmosphere continued even through the ending as Bogey sent Ingrid away and walked off into the fog with Claude Rains. They sat silently as the credits scrolled by, virtually tucked together with their stocking feet on the coffee table.

"Wow, that was... "

"Great!" she finished for him.

"Yeah! That too."

Contrary to what they both expected, the ease and comfort persisted through the following days.

Cordelia's lips turned up slightly in a wistful smile as she recalled the recent event, reliving the entire evening in just a few seconds.

"-erything has finally turned around for him. A good job, away from his parents. Not so many curves to throw him off," Willow's voice broke into Cordelia's reverie. She mentally shook off the memory.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, beginning to see the direction of Willow's questions.

Willow didn't meet Cordelia's glare. "I'm just sayin' I wouldn't want anything to knock his train off the track." She started fiddling with some of the apparatus on the table.

"Such as?"

"Well, y'know, relationships? They can be complicated. Husband and wives, lovers-"

Cordelia lifted one eye-brow. Willow, having seen similar expressions, knew the meaning. It used to bother her but now she was just used to it. "Yes, even gay-type lovers," she answered curtly in a bored tone. "But friendships too; acquaintances. Roommates even..." Willow let the hook dangle for Cordelia to pick up.

"Roommates? Me and Xander?" Cordelia saw the point Willow wanted to lead up to but she had no intention of making it any easier for the redhead.

Willow waited expectantly. When Cordelia gave her nothing further, she continued. "Yes. Of all the roommates he could possibly have, he's got you. It's, um, just...an interesting dynamic."

"Interesting how?"

Willow huffed and her tone became more assertive. "I don't want to see him hurt."

"Hurt?"

"Yes."

"You think I'm going to hurt him?"

"Yes. Maybe not deliberately...but the odds are, yeah."

Cordelia laughed without humor. "Have we forgotten who cheated on who, Willow? Who got stabbed through the gut because of infidelity? Willow? Seems to me it was you two doing all the train-wrecking."

Willow stood her ground. "W-well, that's a good point, isn't it? You're not over it. You have a reason to get back at him. But that was a long time ago and things are all changed around. He's grown up a lot. And obviously I've changed. But have you? If you wanted to you could hurt him back a lot worse now. It would be your perfect moment of revenge. It's Lucy yanking the ball away just as Charlie Brown is about to kick it."

Willow paused.

"And I'm sorry about the 'fluking'. I really am. It was, it was..." Willow waved her arm as if trying to conjure up just the right words, but couldn't and gave up in frustration. "Well, I don't know what it was, but it was! And it's over and done and history and we're all adults now. And I'm still Xander's friend. And I will not let you hurt him." She crossed her arms and returned Cordelia's glare with her own.

Cordelia looked away, some of Willow's comments hitting home. She thought back over the events of her time with Xander from beginning to end. Shortly afterward she told herself it had been a huge mistake to begin with, a sickening horrible, never-ending insanity she had no control over. She'd even blamed Buffy at one point.

But she was younger then; the things that seemed so important and necessary to her then hardly registered anymore, not compared to what mattered now.

True, she could honestly tell herself and any who cared to listen she had been the loyal one in their relationship. Upon reflection Cordelia also knew she had made some mistakes as well. Her sharp tongue still got the better of her, even when speaking to Xander. She now knew what she would have proudly called the "honest truth" of her harsh comments to people was often spoken with no more than careless malicious intent, that sometimes tactlessness served no better purpose than to cut.

For a very long time she was always doing her best to hide what they had, what she had felt about him, from her friends and his, and then from herself and him. Not only had she hidden her affections and changing feelings from him but she belittled them as no more than a temporary phase to get out of her system. Too late she now realized this was a form of dishonesty she would have called out on anyone else.

Cordelia glanced at Willow. She didn't know if telling him of her feelings would have made any difference in what transpired between him and Willow, but she would never know and regretted not having said anything to him.

"Despite everything I've suffered because of you two, I really have no interest in anything so small-minded as that. It was just a stupid childish high-school romance." Cordelia stopped and scolded herself, wondering if she'd just given away more than she intended. Willow's expression didn't change and Cordelia concluded Willow probably had had some idea of the depth of Cordelia's feelings back then. Or maybe she had no clue whatsoever. Cordelia bulled ahead. "And you're right, a lot has changed."

However, Cordelia was not about to go into any of the history of the last year and a half and its dose of harsh reality (even if Willow might already know). She'd learned to at least separate the physical pain from the emotional and she didn't blame Xander for the accidental fall through the stairs. She actually could think of it in those terms now.

As for the emotional wounds, it was high-school stuff and now that Xander, unknown to Willow, had finally offered a sincere apology she could separate the two. She could honestly say to herself she didn't harbor any hatred toward Xander any more. She continued more softly, and with a gentle smile. "We have an understanding now. And I'm not the one who's going to hurt Xander. " Cordelia gave Willow an accusatory look. "On the other hand..."

"Me?" squeaked Willow, getting the implication. "How? I'm his best friend!"

Cordelia scoffed. "Don't play dumb, Willow. You hurt him the way you coddle and mother him, like you're doing right now. And I've seen you use your magic to try and protect him. He's a grown man, capable of defending himself. Or haven't you noticed? And then there's the times when you and Buffy totally blow him off, so into your college life, like he's the townie you're too embarrassed to even slum with."

Willow, her own temper rising, stood up, knocking over the chair. "Cordelia-"

There was a time and place when Cordelia knew, with barely a raised chin and a look just so, she could have made Willow swallow her tongue and scurry away like a mouse. Either she really had grown up and was just not interested any more in putting people down in their place when she was annoyed, or Willow too had grown in self-assured confidence and Cordelia knew it wouldn't work. Probably both were true. Either way, Cordelia restrained herself from carelessly lashing out at Willow. Right now Cordelia just wanted out of this irritating conversation. The jingle of the door was a very welcome and well-timed excuse to break away.

Cordelia practically leaped up to greet her new customer, leaving Willow behind, her sentence left unfinished. To Willow, slightly exasperated, it was so typical of Cordelia to brush her off so easily and she nearly turned to follow and make a fuss. Instead she decided Cordelia was just not worth the effort and began to sit again and get back to the intricacies of her work.

"Welcome to the Magic Box! Is there anything I can do for-Oh, crap."

Willow's back had been to the door when Cordelia greeted the customer. Normally she wouldn't have given a second thought to one of Cordelia's rather abrasive greetings, but this seemed beyond the pale even for Cordelia. A tingle of icy dread clawed through her as she turned to see who Cordelia had so crudely addressed. "What is i-Oh, crap." Willow's mouth went dry.

"Oh, my dearies, are we in a bit of a tizzy? Should I come back another time? Or eat you both now?"

Cordelia was backing away slowly and couldn't speak. Willow swallowed and then giggled. "Oh, ah, hey Dru, long time, no see?" She felt like an idiot. Cordelia's sideways scowl confirmed that, yes indeed, she was an idiot.

Drusilla flowed gracefully into the main area of the shop, past Cordelia whose feet were suddenly glued to the floor.

She gave Willow a sly, knowing wink and lecherous smile. "I see you always, precious, so dark and powerful. Mysterious. And such a nice, naughty little girl you are."

The last time Willow had seen this vampire was nearly two and a half years ago when Drusilla had killed the slayer Kendra. Willow flushed in embarrassment. She didn't know why, because everyone knew she was lesbian, and she didn't care who knew, but somehow the way the vampire picked up on it and behaved really unnerved her.

Drusilla swept on past Willow and peered about the shelves, running her fingers lightly over an item or two before moving on to the next. With the vampire further away Cordelia was able to move again and joined Willow as they cautiously watched Drusilla roam deeper into the store.

They knew better than to run since both had witnessed vampire's speed first-hand. She might be one of the most whacked vampires ever but she was astonishingly quick, even by un-dead standards. They gave each other a "what do we do now?" look, both shrugging their answer in unison.

"There's never a slayer around when you need one," groused Cordelia. "Now's the time to try that spell!" she whispered out the side of her mouth to Willow.

Willow quietly but equally fiercely replied through her teeth. "We don't even know if works. We could destroy everything!"

"Does it look like it matters right now?"

"What's that you two darlings are whispering to each other?" Drusilla called from across the floor.

"Oh, ah, nothing important! Nothing at all!" Cordelia answered nervously.

"We were just kinda wondering why you're back here in little old, boring Sunnydale. You know, with the not so much going on, and Slayers always roaming about who knows where, and not as fun for a vampire as, oh say, Los Angeles? Where things are exciting and fun and..." babbled Willow.

Cordelia's eyes were getting wider and wider and she kept making shushing motions, but to no avail. Willow in nervous babble mode could be an unstoppable force.

"Yes, the City of Angel. I think my kitten's queen knows. Don't you?" asked Drusilla.

Willow glanced toward Cordelia. "What?" Cordelia's response was another shrug, with a gesture of twirling her finger near her ear.

With a blur and almost silent whoosh Drusilla was beside them again. "Crazy, yes. But not spinning in the head, no!" She swayed and did a light swirling dance step with an unseen partner. "Daddy wasn't very nice. And Grandmummy was all cranky-pants," she added glumly.

"Huh?"

"Angel," said Cordelia, "And Darla, I think."

"Oh."

"But the hill and the 'Dale has sparkly green fire all alive, yes, yes, yes, she's so very alive, so very young and so very old! And dust-mop repair shops, all along the boulevard like, like..." Drusilla's soliloquy stopped as she tried to think of things all lined up in a row.

Ah, so obvious! "Like dead chubby li'l children." Drusilla was looking off into the distance, waving her arms about as she continued dancing with the dust mop in need of repair.

Cordelia and Willow shared a terrified look. Drusilla waxing crazy and prophetic was always a bad sign of things to come. Could she have known what she was talking about with her reference to living green fire?

Unknown to any of the trio inside the Magic Box, Scab was sitting hunched just outside the window, his turn to keep an eye on the Slayer and her retinue. Mostly he'd been trying to keep from falling asleep from exceeding boredom. Drusilla's words carried clearly through to him and boredom was no longer a problem. Was that a reference to the Key? He debated going right to Glory or moving closer to hear if anything else was said about the Key. He decided to move closer for a few minutes before going back to report to his Goddess.

Drusilla's toe caught the edge of the rug and made her stumble. She snapped back to the here and now, eyes clear and lucid. "I'm looking for my Spike. Do you darlings happen to know where he is?"

"Spike?" Willow asked, shrugging theatrically and looked expectantly at Cordelia. "Spike?"

Cordelia made a big show of intently peering around the store. "Spikes? I'm sorry, I think we're out of spikes at the moment, but if you could wait a moment I can special-order some from our supplier."

Cordelia started stepping back toward the safety of the counter, intending to put distance and anything else she could between her and the vampire. Things would go from incredibly bad to incredibly worse if Drusilla's second sight revealed who had dusted Spike. Cordelia hadn't had much to do with Drusilla over the years, just a few encounters, mostly hearing about her from Xander after the Valentine's Day fiasco when she first dumped him, and a few more stories from Angel. She hadn't liked what she heard then and she didn't like what she was seeing now.

Run-of-the-mill vampires could be bad enough but at least were reasonably predictable. A crazy one like Drusilla, there was just no telling when and what she might do.

"Stop!" roared Drusilla.

"Absolutely." Cordelia froze right in her tracks. Leave it to slayers to provoke crazy vamps. And speaking of which, where the heck was a slayer when you really needed one? Cordelia crossed her arms and puffed out a breath and fumed.

Drusilla focused back on Willow, who hemmed and hawed and shrugged again, flashing a little uncertain smile and then looking away from the vampire.

Drusilla growled low in her throat, causing a new stream of babble.

"Oh, that Spike! Right. Yes, yes. Well, uh, he's be-I mean I-I-I haven't seen him around lately. Cordy?"

"What? Oh yeah. Spike. We were just talking about him. He hasn't been showing up much at all the last few weeks. Perhaps Buffy might know?"

Drusilla looked at the pair queerly, then closed her eyes. Her prey didn't move an inch, barely even breathing. She slowly cocked her head this way and that, questing for guidance in the ether. She lifted her chin and her eyes snapped open, zeroing in on Willow.

"I feel power in you. Salt and pepper, sugar and spice." Drusilla smiled lewdly and strolled over to Willow, circling her, running her fingertips across the redhead's shoulders. "So different than the last time. Maybe we could play until my Spike gets here."

Willow did her best to suppress a shudder when Drusilla cackled. "A good time will be had by all! I know things. Many things your friend doesn't." Somehow Willow know Drusilla was not referring to Cordelia.

Right at that moment Xander burst through the door, already talking before seeing anything. "Hey guys, what's going on? Is everyone still alive?" he called out jokingly.

Seeing who was between Willow and Cordelia made his leg lock up mid-step as he started down the stairs, causing him to stumble and scramble wildly to keep from falling flat on his face. He ended up on his hands and knees just a few feet from a tittering Drusilla.

"Oh, my poor kitten, his feet are too large and he needs his mummy's help, doesn't he?. Come, my sweet." Drusilla casually hoisted Xander off the floor and plopped him on his feet next to her, holding him tightly by the waist. "Look at these two strumpets. I don't like them. Miss Edith doesn't like them either. That one, she's dangerous. And that one was Daddy's friend. They are bad together. The stars say Kitten must choose."

"What? Choose what?"

"Who to share our bed. Let the sky have the other."

"What?"

"My sweet kitten, my delicious kitten, which shall be dinner tonight?" asked Drusilla, swaying slightly.

"What?"

Drusilla let go of Xander and quickly went behind the girls, placing one cold hand on the back of the neck of each, giving each a squeeze in turn. Willow yipped and suppressed a shudder, Cordelia closed her eyes and endured.

"Shall it be the Black Witch or the Queen of Diamonds?

"Hey!" each girl protested.

"What?"

Xander was finally able to break loose from his panic-induced mono-verbalism. "No! No way. We're not doing this! I won't let you hurt either of them," Xander declared in a voice that rang out far more courageously than he felt.

Drusilla seemed genuinely surprised. "Why surely you must prefer one to the other? One to sup upon, the other to... " Drusilla sensuously slid her hand along Cordelia's body from the side-swell of her breast down to her thigh, with a final pat on the rear, humming serenely, then did the same to Willow. Both girls shivered, their faces twisting in revulsion. "...play with?

"Or dessert. Your choice m'dear, whichever. Mummy knows you'll choose well."

Cordelia sighed, resigned to her fate. No matter how well she and Xander had been doing since her return, they were just a "work in progress". Xander and Willow were the dorky duo, like super and glue to each other. When push came to shove with regard to Willow, Xander would never pick against his lifelong friend.

Xander's eyes darted from one girl to the other, his mouth opening and closing in indecision. Then he stopped and straightened himself. "No, you crazy mosquito! You can't make me chose between my best friend and-"

Here it comes, thought Cordelia, as Xander looked from Willow to her, seeing his determined expression change to uncertainty. It was inevitable. Really, how could Xander not choose Willow?

In these last few moments of her life Cordelia realized she fully accepted Xander's apology. Despite the inflicted hurts, she now understood, at least in some small way, whatever had happened between herself, Willow and Xander was a human thing.

After her experiences with Doyle, Wes, Angel, and even Gunn, she knew men weren't mind-readers and it was perhaps unfair to expect an 18-year old male be able to understand the cues any girl could instinctively recognize. With men you sometimes had to accept they needed a good thwacking over the head with a clue-by-four. Cordelia was also better able to tell the true bastards, the ones who really never gave a shit about her, from those who did care but were sometimes fallible.

By the calendar it was only a few short years ago, but in some ways it felt like a whole different life to her, like two completely separate Cordelia's, one so youthful and inexperienced, headstrong and proud, the other mature and understanding. The things that once seemed so important to the younger Cordelia-and she clearly remembered her priorities then-now seemed mere trivialities compared to what mattered now.

It would always hurt, what he had done. She would never forget it, probably never fully understand it. But she understood that perhaps, just possibly, it was the kind of mistake anyone, everyone actually a human being, including herself, was capable of. And human mistakes could be forgiven.

She nodded her head to Xander to let him know she understood.

"-and my other best friend! You leave my girls alone!"

Xander started forward but stopped when Drusilla growled.

"Yeah! You go, Xander!" cheered Willow.

Cordelia nearly fell from the sudden relief, knowing Xander wasn't going to let her be so easily sacrificed, that he would fight for her.

"You won't choose? Pity, I'll have to chose for you." Drusilla stepped behind the two girls and drew them close. She took a fistful of either red hair or brunette, yanking hard. Both girls unsuccessfully tried to stifle gasps of pain. Drusilla pulled the handfuls of hair in front of her nose and inhaled deeply, so deeply, one at a time from each.

"I think I chose this one. Blood and bone, flesh for flesh, an eye for an eye." She opened wide, face morphing, lips pulling back from sharp fangs to bite down on the exposed bare neck.

"NO!"

In the brief moments when Drusilla was not paying full attention to Xander he had been edging closer. He dived at Cordelia when he saw Drusilla behind her start to lean forward, knocking Cordelia out of Drusilla's grasp.

Drusilla, her face quickly returning to human-like form, looked childishly surprised, like a little girl who had just been bumped and dropped her lolly-pop in the dirt. Disappointment marred her delicate features as if she were were about to cry. Then she noticed the perpetrator and quickly became consumed by rage, forgetting and letting go of Willow. Instead of going after Cordelia on the floor several yards away, still gasping painfully from the body blow Xander had delivered, Drusilla reached for Xander sprawled at her feet.

"Naughty kittens have to be punished."

Willow slid sideways to the table where she had been working, scooped up a handful of rust and dumped it into the crucible of potion she had been working on before Drusilla's appearance. Quickly, Willow dipped her hands into the muck and pulled them out together with only her finger tips touching, leaving a spherical volume between her coated palms, and muttered, "Solaria!"

When she spread her palms open a brilliant burst of sunlight filled the room, blinding everyone who was looking anywhere near, casting sharp shadows against the walls.

Drusilla screamed in agony. She let go of Xander and threw up her arms in front of her face, feeling a dry burning sear through her skin, smelling the sulfurous odor of smoke curling up from herself.

The brilliance was gone as suddenly as it came. The humans had not felt any heat but the room now seemed black as night, with blue after-images whenever they blinked. Drusilla had stumbled back from the blast of sunlight and was also blinded in addition to the slight charring on any exposed patch of skin, but she was otherwise unhurt.

Drusilla looked around, blinking rapidly, and saw only the blurry shape of a cringing Willow standing not far from her. She completely missed Xander rising from the floor.

Xander, recognizing an opportunity, hauled off and hit Drusilla as hard as he could, flush on her temple. He cried in pain as it felt like he'd busted some fingers.

Drusilla was stunned for a moment as she staggered a few steps but there was no other obvious damage. Xander got ready to strike with his other hand but Drusilla recovered quickly and leaned out of the way.

"Bad kitty!" she scolded, before giving him a casual swipe that sent him flying.

With bad kitty out of the way she spotted Cordelia and started toward her. She's done with the playing and now just wanted to feed.

Xander once more gathered himself off the floor-something he's become quite good at after all his fights with vampires-and charged again. He knew enough not to fight Drusilla directly and tried to tackle her at the knees, hoping to knock her off balance.

It was like running into a tree-trunk and he bounced off, pain lancing from his shoulder down to his groin.

However Xander's tactic was effective enough to knock Drusilla several steps away from Cordelia. The vampire stood and looked confused by the total lack of co-operation from her pet, her dinner, and her play-thing.

Drusilla wanted to pout and maybe even cry a little when the little bell chime on the shop's front door dinged loudly. Buffy burst through, followed by a frightened Tara behind.

"This is not a good day," whined Drusilla as she prepared to fight off the Slayer. She first slashed at Buffy, who ducked out of the way of razor-sharp nails, countering with a kick to Drusilla's midriff.

As the fight continued around the shop, Xander crawled over to Cordelia to make sure she was shielded from flying debris. Once he verified Cordelia was only winded but otherwise unhurt he got himself ready to rejoin the fray, if only to distract Drusilla.

Buffy fumbled to find a stake and Drusilla took the opportunity to break off and escape through the same door Buffy entered. She might be a crazy vampire but was never stupid. She'd learned when running from the Slayer was the better part of self-preservation.

Wincing from one of Drusilla's kicks Buffy leaned against the nearby wall and looked around, instinctively making sure there was no more danger. Sensing none, Buffy relaxed and walked over to her friends where an injured Xander was already helping Willow and Cordelia back to their feet. "You guys okay?"

Willow threw her arms around Xander's neck, "You idiot, we had it all under control!" she said, giving a wink to Cordelia. Cordelia returned an almost imperceptible nod and conspiratorial smile of her own. No sense making a big deal of it.

Cordelia came up to Xander and gave him a light smack on the shoulder, being careful to target the uninjured one. "What took you so long?"

Despite his pain Xander answered Cordelia enthusiastically. "Well it's been quite a day, let me tell you! We're coming through town on our way here to keep you guys from-" Xander paused to rethink the reason they had been rushing back from campus, and coughed. "That is, come see you guys, when you just wouldn't believe what we ran into."

Fortunately Olaf had merely sneered at them when Xander ran into the troll's rather large rear after he unexpectedly stepped off the curb. When they all got out to see if he was injured Olaf laughed heartily and continued on his merry rampaging way. Xander left Buffy and Tara to deal while he checked to see if the car was badly damaged. Not wanting to take chances he had pulled into a parking spot and went on foot the rest of the way.

"And then Buffy took off after him. And I came here."

"Yeah, she saved a dumpster from oblivion," chirped Tara, bouncing happily on her toes.

"And baby food!" Everyone turned and stared at Buffy. "I mean babies as food! He wanted to eat babies."

"Ewww, yuch much?"

"I think things are settled down for now. Are you guys okay now?" Buffy asked of Xander and Cordelia, Willow and Tara. When she got nods from all around she started for the door. "There's this big hammer thing Olaf left behind," she explained, "Wicked heavy and I should get it before any bad guy starts getting notions. Besides, Giles would love it, it's got all kinds of weird writing on it."

Everyone waved their assent for to go do her slayer due diligence. She stopped halfway out the door and leaned back in. "Are you sure you guys are going to be okay?"

"Yeah, go on Buffy, we're good here," Xander spoke for the four of them.

"We'll be fine. We can stop by tomorrow and take a look at the writing, maybe get a head start on Giles," Willow added.

"If anything attacks I'll just throw him in front. He's useful that way. Sometimes."

Buffy looked a little dubious and was about to make an argument but relented and hurried off.

The four of them shuffled around a little in the wake of Buffy's drop-in arrival, quick inconclusive fight, and quicker departure.

"I should get Willow home," said Tara. She looked around at the wrecked shop. "We'll come by early to help clean up."

Cordelia nodded her thanks.

"Cordelia, about what we were discussing-"

Cordelia held up her hand. "No worries, Willow. We're good."

"We are?" Willow seemed genuinely surprised, both by the words and the sincerity with which Cordelia said them.

Cordelia smiled. "Yeah."

"Okay. See you guys tomorrow." She and Tara left, both talking over each other about their evening's adventures and the success of the Solaria spell.

As their babbling faded down the street it became very quiet again and Xander slumped down onto one of the few undamaged stools. Cordelia stood uncertainly, gazing forlornly at the mess of the Magic Box.

Extreme disaster area would have been a more accurate term, a place worthy of federal cleanup funds. Tired to the bone, she pushed some of the mess around with her toe before giving up even that much effort. The debris and clutter weren't going anywhere and she was too tired to even work up the proper righteous indignation that someone, no matter how evil, would dare mess up her store.

"I guess I'd better get you home, too, before you do something even more stupid to get yourself killed."

Xander's pain was beginning to wear and he could barely keep himself from sagging off the stool that propped him up. He grunted his agreement.

The walk back began in silence. She immediately pulled his arm over and around her shoulders when she noticed him beginning to weave slightly. He looked down at her in surprise but she was concentrating on guiding them down the middle of the sidewalk.

"So," she said after a time, glancing sideways and up at Xander's profile, "best friend?"

"Ah." Xander gulped. "You heard that part, huh?" He waited and became apprehensive at the lack of her response. It had come almost without thought and now that he had some time to think about it, to sound out the words, he desperately wanted it to be so. He wanted Cordelia to want it too.

"Loud and clear. Seems like a bit of progress."

"Yeah. Uh, well y'know Cordy, the thing is-"

"That works for me," Cordelia gave him a playful hip bump then cleared her throat, and in her best attempted Bogey imitation began, "Louis, I think this is the beginning-"

The sound of their laughter and giggles echoed off the buildings of the nearly deserted downtown. His pain suddenly felt far away and there was a new energy in his step.

x-x

Unknown to the Scoobies, Drusilla had run into and was almost immediately entangled by a flexible wire net when she escaped the Magic Box in such a hurry. Every thrashing motion just got her more and more caught up in the mesh. Eventually a dozen ugly little scuttling (but stronger than they looked) gnomes approached, poking at her to test if she could get out.

As they carefully untwisted the net from her limbs they also quickly and expertly pinned her arms behind her back. She was securely bound before being picked up and carried off. She snarled and tried to bite at one of the little scabby demons surrounding her. taking away her freedom to roam and hunt as she pleased. They batted her hard with a club, making her dizzy and unable to follow the course of events as she was carried away.

"I don't like today," she moaned. Except for a few brief moments with Spike, unlife had not been good for her since her illness, nor had they improved when Spike brought her to these American shores. Europe was where she needed to be, prowling among a civilized population where a little demonic death and mayhem was a natural part of the culture.

Eventually she was dragged into the foyer of a large and brightly lit penthouse apartment and dropped like a bag of potatoes onto the marble floor. Drusilla struggled to her feet and once again tried to bite a captor. The demon jumped back out of reach but seemed otherwise unafraid. At that moment Glory stepped out from behind the vampire, flicked her wrist and easily swatted the vampire down. "Behave yourself or I'll squash you like a bug, you annoying little tick."

When Drusilla's vision cleared again and she was able to see Glory, she dropped to her knees. "Oooh, Red emeralds, ice and lilac! I see you're locked out, locked away, far far from home and time. I know what that's like." Drusilla drifted off into a high-pitched hum.

Glory smiled indulgently. The crazy vampire might just be the key, or rather the key to the Key, if Scab's information was to be believed.

Glory laughed at her own little joke, not noticing the minions scuttling back nervously. Glory knew she would have to keep Dru on a short leash to properly use her, and carelessly smacked Dru against the brick wall, stunning her into unconsciousness.

"We'll find a way to use you," Glory informed the supine Drusilla.


To be continued (unless I die)