37: The Library, Sunnydale High School, Southeast Sunnydale
With her feet still propped up on the table, Faith watched as the library doors swung closed. Buffy had practically stormed out leaving Willow and Xander to scramble after her. The hasty excuse she made fooled nobody. She could not have been more obvious about it if she had had steam coming out of her ears.
As soon as Blondie was out of sight, Cordelia pushed herself out of Angel’s hold. Turning to face him, she had poked a finger in his chest. Angrily, “Don’t ever use me that way. How dare you paw me in front of Buffy just so you can make her jealous?”
Angel’s jaw dropped, “Me? I wasn’t.” He turned to look at Giles and Faith for a little support. The Watcher’s face was dourly serious while the Slayer’s dimpled cheeks suggested a completely opposite view on the situation. He assured them both, “I wasn’t pawing.”
Letting out a laugh, Faith pointed toward the swinging doors where Cordelia had just exited. “I don’t think it’s us you’ve gotta convince, Soul Boy.”
The look of panic on his face was priceless. Angel muttered a curse and went after her, leaving Faith and Giles alone in the library. Giles let out a long sigh, pulled off his glasses and rubbed a hand over his face. “I’ll be glad when things get back to normal around here.”
“Define normal,” Faith sent him a wry look. “This is the Hellmouth.”
“Point taken.”
Cordelia had told Faith about some of her experiences with Angel. Their phone call last night lasted over an hour. Although Faith had tried to pry information out of her about Drusilla’s threat, she had been strangely closed-mouthed about the details. Whatever it was nearly caused Cor to cancel her plans for tonight.
She had this strange idea about exposing Angel to normal activities. Faith pointed out that as a vampire Angel had a completely different definition of normal, but Cordelia wasn’t listening. It was weird that Cor actually wanted to be friends with him when Faith’s first instinct was to stake him.
Her second instinct had a lot to do with letting him do the ‘staking’, but she had decided not to go there considering that it was too much fun to sit back and watch this whole thing play out. Just seeing B’s reaction tonight was worth it.
Besides, Cordelia was the closest thing Faith had to being a friend. At first glance she might’ve seemed like someone’s pampered princess, spoilt rotten, the kind of girl Faith would love to see take a fall. But the reality was that she had taken one and Faith had to give her props for landing on her feet.
What’s more, she did not whine about it. There had been no playing the sympathy card with the Scoobs. That deserved some respect in her book.
“Gotta admit, those two could really be hot together,” Faith grinned at the notion of Cor and Angel going at it.
Giles was less that happy about that line of dangerous thinking. “Might I remind you that Angel should not get ‘hot’ with anybody. There is a curse to consider.”
“Damn,” Faith muttered, her smile falling into a fast frown. Now looking concerned, she admitted, “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Yes, I only hope to God that they have.” The last thing Giles needed right now was Angelus on the loose. He turned away to finish gathering supplies.
Zipping the duffel bag, he turned to find Faith staring at him. She let her gaze drop slowly down the length of his frame before climbing back up again. Giles blinked several times as if expecting her curious expression to change. “Sh-shall we get started? I have the rest of the equipment in the boot of the car.”
“I think it’s time to lose the tweed, G-man,” Faith fingered the textured lapel of his jacket leaving Giles gaping at the direction of his own thoughts. “After all, if we’re gonna get down & dirty together, you might wanna dress for the occasion.”
Scene 38
Saunders Field, Eastside, Sunnydale
Having reached Saunder’s Field on a power-walk, Buffy was standing at its center staring up at the sky. It was several minutes before her friends caught up with her, both of them out of breath. Sensing their approach, she seethed, “Did you see that? Cordelia was all over him like some oily demoness.”
Willow and Xander glanced at each other and simply fell down on the ground, too tired to bother standing. Panting, Willow admitted, “Not really.”
“Are you kidding?” Xander sank back onto his elbows. “Dead Boy was the touchy-feely one.”
A little whine sounded from Buffy as she dropped down beside them. “This is all Cordelia’s fault. If she hadn’t broken up with you or come back, I wouldn’t have teamed her up with Angel.”
“They’re just patrolling together.” Willow reminded her that Angel had not even wanted to do that.
Xander nodded. He had tried to stay out of the argument back at the library. Cor would have nailed him to the wall for interfering. “Yeah, it’s just patrol. It’s not like they’ve been making out,” Buffy and Willow gasped loudly, “or anything.”
“Don’t even say that, Xander Harris,” Buffy was horrified at the thought. “There is no way Angel could ever want to kiss her.”
Automatically coming to his ex-girlfriend’s defense, Xander commented, “Cor’s a great kisser.”
“Do you honestly think I want to hear that?”
Shrinking back a little, Xander shrugged, “Probably never crossed his mind.”
After a long period of silence, Buffy brought up the incident at Trinity Church last night. “What do Drusilla and Spike want with Cordelia? It’s ridiculous.”
“Drusilla was jealous,” Willow reminded them what Giles said about Dru jumping to the wrong conclusions.
Buffy pulled her knees into her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She had tried to talk to Cordelia about it at school today, but had no luck in getting a straight answer out of her.
“Dru’s nuts,” was the only explanation. It had satisfied Buffy at the time, but now she had to wonder if Drusilla’s conclusions were not right on target. The vampiress was not the only jealous one, Buffy acknowledged the swarming feelings.
Just because she had sacrificed her heart by giving Angel up did not mean that he was free to be with just anyone, especially if that someone happened to be Cordelia. It was wrong. He belonged to her. There was a curse to consider.
Angel was not that irresponsible. He wouldn’t…would he? No, Buffy assured herself. It was her imagination. Angel was just being protective. He felt responsible for the fact that his childe had the wrong idea about them. He had not even wanted Cordelia along tonight.
Glancing down at Willow and Xander, who were now stretched out on the ground gazing skyward, Buffy unfolded her small frame and followed suit. “Guys, you don’t think Angel will know I was jealous, do you?”
The crickets chirped loudly in the grassy field as Buffy awaited an answer.