Saturday Morning
Even though she’d had a late night, Willow entered the library early the next day, eager to discover whether her ghost had been active during the rest of the night. It only made sense that a ghost might know they’d been staking out the library and purposefully stayed away.
“Ah hah!” She was grinning like mad upon seeing the notes she had so carefully laid out on the table spread all over the floor. That wasn’t the only thing looking messy. A jar of pencils on the countertop was knocked over and some books were on the floor near the shelves. “Gotcha!”
Heading into Giles’ office, Willow grabbed the VCR tape out of the wireless recorder, the spy cam device she’d borrowed from her Uncle Hershel. Designed specifically for home security, the system included a motion sensitive camera with a wireless VCR relay device.
Willow had set up the VCR and transceiver prior to them leaving last night figuring to catch their ghost in the act.
The others couldn’t deny the truth if they saw it all on film.
She hadn’t set up a video monitor here in the office and the A/V room was currently locked up tight. So Willow planned to head home and watch it there. Since the small camera was motion-sensitive, she wasn’t quite certain what it would pick up, but hoped that the evidence of her poltergeist would be on the tape.
Walking home, a perky hop in her step, Willow ran into Buffy and Xander. “Our ghost struck again last night. Got it all on tape. Uncle Hersh let me borrow a wireless video system. Wanna watch?”
“I can’t,” Buffy pouted, then revealing, “More training.”
“Again?” Even Willow looked a little surprised. Giles hadn’t let up on the Slayer for a week now. Day after day he was focusing on some new technique she needed to learn.
The blonde nodded woefully, “Yup! I’d much rather watch movies with you.”
“I’ll go,” Xander volunteered. The thought of going to the library and helping Buffy with her training session was always inviting, but it also made him think of food. As far as he knew, there wasn’t any stashed away in Giles’ office, but the Rosenberg refrigerator was always full.
Walking past Xander’s house on the way, he noticed a familiar car in the driveway. “Walk faster. Uncle Rory’s visiting.”
They hadn’t gone five feet before his mother appeared on the porch. “Xander Lavelle Harris, I thought I told you to stick around today. Your uncle is here and you know he likes to see you.”
Xander shared a look with Willow that suggested it was not his idea of fun. That was why he’d escaped before anyone noticed and headed over to Buffy’s house. With a sympathetic smile, Willow told him, “Sorry, Xander. I’ll watch the tape and let you know if there’s anything interesting on it.”
“Can we trade uncles one of these days?” Xander asked not for the first time. “Yours gives out computer games and gizmos for your birthday. Last year, Uncle Rory gave me a stuffed squirrel he ran over with his car.”
A large-eyed stare of sympathy followed. The taxidermist apparently liked his gifts to be personal. “Think of it this way. When you get your first apartment, you won’t have any problem decorating. You’ll have your very own Wild Kingdom.”
She was giggling now, unable to hide her amusement at the idea of a giant moose head hanging over Xander’s bed. “Thanks for that, Will. Go home now before Uncle Rory hears you and gets any ideas.”
Reaching her house just a block away, Willow realized immediately that her parents had already gone out for the day. They’d said something about shopping and wanted to get to the mall before it got crowded.
Kinda hard to explain why she was watching a video tape of the school library without going into details. While Uncle Hershel had given her the VCR command pack without question, even he would find her reasons a little odd.
Deciding to get comfortable before getting started, Willow popped some popcorn in lieu of having breakfast. Popcorn was better for movies, anyway, and this was kind of a movie. She grabbed a soda from the fridge and headed back into the living room to watch the video.
Setting down on the couch, Willow turned the television on and pressed the play button. The camera, designed to pick up movement immediately focused on their group as everyone gathered their belongings in preparation for leaving the library.
Expecting this, Willow sat back and waited for everyone to leave. Once the doors were closed, she knew that the camera would shut off and then only pick up again at the first movement her ghostly intruder made.
The scene flashed as the camera swept to the library doors. Willow didn’t expect her ghost would come in that way, but maybe it had been hanging out in the principle’s office or something. It sounded like a good place for a high school poltergeist to cause trouble.
“Cordelia?” Disappointment sounded in Willow’s voice as the brunette walked back into the library. She was obviously trying to find something. “Forget your car keys?”
The camera caught a movement from the shadows behind Cordelia. It was Angel, she realized, who had apparently never left. “Looking for me?”
Puzzled, Willow munched on the popcorn and watched the screen, thinking all the while that she wished they’d get out of there so her ghost would show up. And why would Cordelia come back looking for Angel? It’s not like he ever took her up on the offer of a ride home.
Almost as soon as he posed the question, Angel’s arms encircled Cordelia from behind and his lips tenderly kissed her temple.
Willow’s mouth fell open, popcorn dropping to her lap as her eyes fixated on the screen. “Wha—huh?” What the whosiwhatsis is going on here?
“Tonight is the last time, Cordelia,” the vampire’s words suggested this wasn’t the first time they’d met like this. Though he wasn’t too happy about it, apparently, “We have to stop this.”
“I know,” Cordelia’s answering cry was almost desperate as she whirled around in Angel’s arms, her own looping around his neck. Then their mouths came together in the hottest on-screen kiss Willow had ever seen.
Leaping off the couch, Willow pressed the pause button on the remote, staring at the television as if the action might cause the evidence before her to vanish from the screen. “That’s…this is… so not what they…I mean…gosh! Eep! That’s Angel. Angel is kissing Cordelia. Cordelia is kissing Angel.”
Pacing in front of the television, Willow threw her hands over her head, then grabbed onto the ends of her short red hair and tugged just to see if she’d wake up from this strange dream. No such luck. Peeking back at the TV, she saw that the scene had not changed.
“Think, Willow, think!” The frantic pacing led her straight to the telephone. It was in her hand and Giles’ office number dialed before she actually did some of the thinking she was trying to focus on.
Giles’ voice came on the other end after the first three rings, “Rupert Giles, here.”
Hyperventilating just a little, Willow was gaspy as she tried to talk. “Giles. Hi. Buffy. Now.”
“Buffy can’t come to the phone right now, Willow,” Giles told her, sounding a little distracted himself. Then his voice came from a distance, as if he was holding the phone away from his mouth and actually addressing Buffy. “Do try that spin kick again. You wouldn’t surprise a two-year old with that move.”
Willow knew that Giles didn’t like their training sessions interrupted. Since this wasn’t exactly a subject Buffy would want her Watcher involved with, Willow wasn’t about to leave him a detailed message. He’d never liked the fact that Angel was Buffy’s boyfriend in the first place, much less after the vampire turned evil and tortured him while trying to suck the world into hell.
Only because Buffy had argued his case upon Angel’s return did Giles reluctantly accept him back into their sphere.
“Giles? Giles, are you there?” Willow called out trying not to whimper into the phone. “I-I need to talk to Buffy.”
“Later, Willow. Not until she gets this right,” Giles was adamant. “What’s the rush?”
Hemming and hawing a little, Willow finally told him, “Oh, I’m just reviewing the video I made of the library last night. She wanted to watch it with me.”
A disinterested hum sounded from the Englishman. He was clearly keeping an eye on the Slayer as she went through her moves in the middle of the library while talking to Willow at the same time. “Any exciting discoveries? Was it a poltergeist or just the janitor’s cat?”
Cat? They hadn’t even thought of that one. “Umm. Discoveries?” her voice reached a high peak squeaking in response. “One or two maybe.”
“Good, that’s good,” Giles was clearly not listening now.
Giving up, Willow simply told Giles to have Buffy call her during her first break. That might be hours, she knew. Hanging up the phone, Willow nibbled at her lower lip, sucking it into her mouth and staring at the image frozen on the television screen.
There was always the possibility that Cordelia and Angel would leave in a minute and she’d still find evidence of her ghostly perpetrator. Okay, so maybe she wasn’t dumb enough to believe that one. Angel himself had indicated this wasn’t the first time that they had been there.
Curiosity burned in the pit of Willow’s stomach. What were Angel and Cordelia doing at the library…together…and kissing? She had no idea, none at all that they had ever gotten that close. Wondering if there might be some other clue as to this shocking development’s origins, Willow lifted the remote and pointed it in the direction of the VCR.
Her shaky finger pressed the play button.
The passionate clinch lasted several more seconds and Willow could feel fire shooting up to her cheeks. Even her ears burned with a combination of embarrassment and… something else that couldn’t possibly be excitement. That wouldn’t be right. Not at all.
“Oh, geez, I’ve wanted to kiss you for hours,” Cordelia admitted, smoothing her hands over the lapels of Angel’s leather jacket and then slipping beneath to rub along the contour of muscles covered only by his soft black sweater.
Watching, Willow’s whole body shivered at the way the vampire was looking down at Cordelia, like he wanted to gobble her up with kisses, his arousal obvious even to one inexperienced in taking note of the signs. Angel’s voice dropped an octave lower than normal, “Just to kiss me? I’ve been thinking about other things, too.”
“Other things?” Willow found herself asking the question even as the words came out of Cordelia’s mouth. She dropped the remote onto the couch beside her and slowly reached for the bowl of popcorn, setting it on her lap.
“Making love to you,” Angel’s mouth curled up into a sensual smile, his hand tracing Cordelia’s face as he said it.
Gaping at the screen again, Willow was on the edge of her seat waiting to hear what he was going to say next.
“Lucky thing you were on the other side of the room all evening,” he added with a self-derisive tone, “otherwise it would have been impossible to keep my hands off of you.”
Cordelia’s hands were doing a little wandering right now as she asked, “Even with the others around?”
Scoffing at the thought, “I barely noticed they were there. All I could think about was you.”
Frowning at the vampire’s admission, Willow didn’t know what to think about it. Even though he was no longer Buffy’s boyfriend… officially, there had to be an unwritten rule that friends kept their hands off other friend’s boyfriends.
Just as soon as the idea came to her, Willow thought about kissing Xander and getting caught in the act by Cordelia and Oz.
“So I’m not one to talk,” Willow pouted. She was so busy grousing about the fact that she almost missed what came next.
“Why does this happen, Angel? Whenever we’re here, I can’t get you out of my head. I want you so much,” Cordelia tried to step away, but his hand captured hers, his thumb circling the back of her hand.
Shaking his head, Angel reluctantly admitted, “I don’t know the reason.” Then setting her at arms length, “You should try to go home. Get out while you can. Before we…”
“I tried to leave,” Cordelia pleaded for understanding, “but I couldn’t. Not without seeing you again.”
“Same here.”
They couldn’t leave? Willow made a little face at the television. From the look of those smoochies, she was almost certain she’d find it hard to go away without them too. Couldn’t blame Cordelia for racing back to get them.
Angel’s voice dipped low, determination sounding in every syllable, “Shall we try for the door again? You know what will happen if we stay.”
Clueless, Willow grabbed a handful of popcorn and started tossing one kernel at a time into her mouth.
“Home is better. When we want. How we want,” Cordelia nodded her consent to the idea. “Let’s go. Now. Before it’s too late.”
Willow barely had time to ask herself, Too late for what? With a burst of speed and strength, Angel swept Cordelia into his arms and shot out of camera range, his movements too fast for the motion-sensitive device to keep up. After a moment, it zoomed back toward the library doors where the vampire had stopped, and holding Cordelia, was now kissing her again as if it was the only thing on his mind.
This was weird, Willow concluded, her curiosity growing by leaps and bounds. It was no longer just a reaction to the fact that Angel and Cordelia were locking lips, but the notion that there was something else going on. Watching the tape seemed to be the logical way to discover the reason behind it.
Still munching on her popcorn, Willow considered the fact that Buffy had broken up with Angel about the same time as Cordelia had ended her relationship with Xander. “Rebound City,” she quipped with sudden understanding that they’d been in the same boat.
Willow didn’t think she’d ever seen Angel so much as touch Cordelia before now. Not unless he was saving her life at the time. Except when he was Angelus and pinned Cordelia to the ground in the cemetery. Evil Angel had certainly made an effort to touch the cheerleader, though he had been planning to kill her at the time, so that might not count.
The camera she had so conveniently placed in the upper level bookshelves had a bird’s eye view of the whole lower level. As Angel carried Cordelia back into the middle of the room, the camera followed their movements. In the back of her mind, Willow figured she needed to tell her Uncle Hershel that the security device worked perfectly. Though this was hardly what she imagined picking up on the recorder.
“Looks like we’re doing this here after all,” Angel set her down on her feet in front of the main counter.
Squirming in her seat, Willow whispered to herself, “Doing what?” Though she had a strong feeling that she knew that answer and was just too comfortable wading knee-deep in denial to admit it to herself.
Pulling his jacket off, he handed it over to Cordelia who tossed it onto the countertop behind her, knocking over the jar of pencils in the process. Then a frenzy of eager movements followed as their hands reached out to unbutton, unzip and unwrap each other so that their clothes dropped to the floor piece by piece.
The remote went flying from Willow’s hand, landing somewhere in the plush couch cushions. “No,no,no. Eep! No nakedness. Stop that! Aack! Cordelia parts.”
Shutting her eyes, Willow felt around in the couch cushions for the remote, but it remained elusive.
“I want you so much, Cordy.” The way he said her name caught Willow’s attention. It was a softer sound than Cordelia or just Cor as they often called her.
“So I see, Big Guy,” Cordelia’s husky response had Willow opening her eyes, turning back toward the television.
Willow practically fell off the couch, her green eyes wide pools. The scientist inside her wrestled with the curious minx, exclaiming, “Wow! Are all vampires that well hung?”
Hearing her own voice, Willow slapped a hand over her mouth. Though the little voice in her head pointed out that it was her mouth she covered and not her eyes. Naughty Willow. It isn’t nice to stare.
Willow didn’t even have Oz to compare him to having never seen her boyfriend naked. Well, except for peeking at him in the cage before he’d gone all werewolf. Playing doctor with Xander when they were eight didn’t count. Besides, all three guys were such different body types that it was hardly fair to do so.
She liked Oz the way he was, but gosh, wow and golly, Angel sure was impressive standing there all big and bulky and broad-shouldered and beautiful.
She couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the screen. Cordelia was the perfect foil for Angel’s male perfection. Willow felt another wave of heat swirl around her belly as she switched her focus from him to her. Angel’s pale hands curved around her lush golden breasts, the dark nipples peaking hard and ripe, apparently too much of a temptation for his mouth to resist.
Cordelia moaned in wanton response and Willow echoed the little sound feeling her own unbidden reaction to the erotic sight. Sinking back into the couch cushions, she found it impossible to stop watching.
The camera followed their every move as they stumbled their way across the library in a tangle of arms and legs. Too caught up in their intimate caresses, they missed the table and collided with the bookcases behind it.
A growl of complaint sounded from deep inside Angel’s chest, welling up like a soft rumble. He lifted Cordelia with ease, settling her legs around his waist, continuing to capture her mouth with hungry kisses. Then he turned, carrying her over to the surface of the table where he set her down on the edge long enough to sweep aside the books and papers covering its surface. They tumbled to the floor with a crash.
“So much for the poltergeist theory,” murmured Willow with a little pout.
Realizing that she really shouldn’t be watching this and that she was intruding on an intimate moment, Willow made a legitimate attempt at searching for the remote again. She stood up and started pulling the cushions up until she found the device. With one last look at the screen, she pressed the pause button again.
Gulping, Willow set the remote down on the coffee table and walked away. Waving a hand in front of her face, she tried to cool off a little. Other than the shocking fact that Angel and Cordelia were obviously lovers, something bothered her about all of this. She didn’t know what it was, but Willow had a weird feeling about it.
Pacing the floor, fidgeting and tugging at the ends of her sweater, she reviewed the facts.
“There’s no ghost,” she shrugged. Obviously Angel and Cordelia had been the ones to wreck havoc on the library. “Kinda strange they didn’t wait to clean up the evidence.”
Willow figured if it was her, she would have put everything back in its proper place. If they’d done that there would have been nothing to set off her curiosity to begin with. She would never have come up with her poltergeist theory or borrowed the security system from Uncle Hersh. So it was all their fault she caught them on film.
“Yup! Their fault,” Willow convinced herself of the fact and was smiling as a result of it. “They shouldn’t be doing those things in public places anyway. Giles would have a fit.”
Then she was giggling like mad. “At least they didn’t use the desk in his office.”
One thing bothered her though, Willow realized, getting over the embarrassment factor and focusing on the events she’d witnessed. Cordelia and Angel both seemed reluctant to be there. Sex in public places was possibly a turn on, but Willow didn’t really see either one of them as the type to go at it in the library of all places.
When Buffy and Angel were together, they’d kissed in public and held hands, but that was the extent that Willow had been privy to seeing. Cordelia…was a little bit different. She handled guys and their wandering hands with practiced ease.
Though her reputation as head cheerleader leant itself to rife rumor, and Willow herself had referred to Cordelia as a skanky ho, the reality was far different. Willow witnessed her relationship with Xander and knew that Cordelia Chase was far from being easy.
“So why the library?” Willow asked herself. “Not exactly your romantic getaway spot. They said they couldn’t leave without seeing each other. That it would be the last time.”
From what Willow had seen on the screen, it didn’t look like they had a relationship that was on the verge of ending. Why would it be the last time? They’d obviously stayed for a reason even though they made an attempt at leaving. In fact, it was not just as simple as trying to head out the door; the vampire had used his superhuman speed to get them out of there, but without success.
“Weird. Maybe they’re just bored with the library.” Tromping back over to the couch, she pulled the popcorn bowl onto her lap and started munching. Thinking back to the first time she’d noticed things being out of order, Willow had to ask herself, “Have they really been doing this for a week?”
Grabbing the remote again, she pressed fast-forward, intending to skim over the details and move straight to the part where they were leaving the library. Willow wanted to see if they had any trouble getting out once they…finished.
She hadn’t counted on the fast-forward action moving across the screen that way and dropped the remote on the floor upon seeing their bodies writhing together at such a frenetic pace.
If it had been somebody she didn’t know, Willow might have been laughing herself to death at the sight, but the fact that these were people she saw nearly every day, made a huge difference. As soon as the wayward device was back in her hands, she set the VCR to play at its normal speed.
Though she knew that it would have been better to simply stop the VCR and fast forward the tape so that she didn’t see everything, Willow’s curiosity got the better of her again. A little guilty twinge pulled at her insides, but it wasn’t as if anyone else knew she was watching the tape.
“Not exactly the film they show in sex ed,” Willow quipped, her eyes widening again at the sight of Angel thrusting rhythmically into the brunette. The way Cordelia was writhing and all but chanting his name made her figure the vampire had to be doing something right.
Not that Willow would know. She and Oz hadn’t gone all the way yet, but wow. This was certainly educational. After what seemed like forever, Cordelia reached a fiery peak, her body clutching his and her cries of passion heard explicitly across the view screen. Angel followed her, his own orgasm coming not far behind and Willow was practically shaking at the intensity leaping off the television screen.
Angel gathered Cordelia into his arms, their bodies still joined. “I’m sorry, Cordy. So sorry.”
To that, Cordelia wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, buried her face against his broad shoulder and pleaded, “Take me home, Angel.”
Sorry? Willow was confused. There was no doubting the enjoyment factor. So why would Angel be sorry after giving Cordelia pleasure to an extent that it practically made her eyes roll back in her head?
The vampire gently disjoined their bodies and placed Cordelia on her feet beside him. His hands cupped her face as he looked down at her with an expression that Willow could not deny held deep feeling. She could have guessed his thoughts even if his next words hadn’t confirmed her suspicions.
“You know I love you, right?”
Cordelia smiled that blinding grin, but her eyes convinced Willow that it was possible for a girl she’d once thought of as a cold-hearted bitch to actually know the meaning of love. She ached for Xander for a brief moment because whatever was going on between Cordelia and Angel eclipsed any tender feelings she’d witnessed before their big break-up.
“I do now,” Cordelia stood on her tiptoes to touch her mouth to his. After they parted from that tender moment that left Willow sighing in response, the brunette told him, “I love you too, Broody, but can we get out of here before Giles’ desk starts to look interesting?”
They dressed hastily and hand-in-hand, Cordelia and Angel bolted out the library doors. As soon as the doors stopped swinging, the motion-sensitive camera turned off. The remainder of the tape was blank and so the television screen went all fuzzy with whitenoise.
Willow turned off the television, ejecting the tape from the VCR at the same time. “Case of the Prankster Poltergeist…solved. Mystery that is Cordelia and Angel…weird. Yummy and wow, but weird.”