Part 5
Stretching her arms wide as she yawned, Willow sank back in the chair she currently occupied at the Magic Shop and waited patiently for Giles’ new employee to arrive. The Englishman had needed to run an errand and he’d asked if she could mind the shop until the new girl arrived. The red head frowned in curious concern as she recalled the ex-watcher telling her no to be alarmed or raise the alarm when she saw who the new girl was.
There were some instructions that couldn’t be ignored to follow before the girl arrived as apparently her son was photosensitive and could in no way be in direct light, not even candle light. So here she was, sitting on her own waiting for the new employee and trying to focus on her college work which seemed to be a no-go for her right now.
Normally, math wasn’t a problem for her but lately nothing about the subject made sense and she was slowly getting annoyed. Willow had put it down to worrying too much about the unusual quiet activity in Sunnydale over the last few weeks.
Spending so much time studying and reading up on unnatural beings and activities, she soon learned that a quiet Hellmouth was not a good Hellmouth.
Her thoughts of unnatural beings brought her to her recent ex, Daniel Osborne, a werewolf who had been her first love since junior high school. She still missed him a lot but she understood the reason why he had to go, well half the reason anyway and she refused to believe it was for her own good. Willow knew Oz too well to believe that he only had her in mind when he left; he had also been worried about himself and the others too.
He hadn’t wanted to do anything that would require Buffy having to kill him and subsequently living with his death on her conscious for the rest of however long she might live. That was one of the many reasons Willow would forever hold Daniel Osborne in her heart.
So selfless and kind, he’d never made her feel inadequate or ugly or anything like that. He’d always made her feel special and beautiful, for that she would be eternally grateful for the confidence Ox had instilled in her.
The sudden jingling of the chimes above the shop door announced the arrival of the new employee and Willow tiredly pushed herself up off the chair and turned off all the lights, plunging the place into total darkness. Glancing around the now dark shop, the red head saw the moving shadows of the figure of an adult accompanied by who she assumed was her young son.
A small stream of light flashed along the ground from a torch held in the little boy’s gloved hands as he led the way to the back of the store, his mom trailing protectively and warily behind him. “Be careful with that baby, I don’t want you accidentally getting hurt and I don’t want you to trip over you either so just watch where you’re going”
At the highly familiar sound of the distinctly unique female voice, Willow felt herself grow stock still as she waited calmly in the back room for the new employee to find her.
“I am being careful mom. See?” Connor spoke mischievously as he wafted the torch around, knowing the light wouldn’t be able to touch his skin through the thick, black cloak.
“Connor” Cordelia growled at the five year old and shook her head. “Giles, are you here? Sorry I’m a few minutes late, my car stalled and the inconsiderate piece of junk wouldn’t move. Giles?” the brunette clamped her hand tightly on her son’s shoulder to cease his walking further towards the back room until Giles had answered. “If you’re in there then yell because I’m not coming one step further unless you do”
“Cordelia” Willow gasped, slapping her hands over her mouth as her emerald irises turned black with dilated pupils. “No. It can’t be, we never found her” the red head whispered firmly to herself as she made the decision to find out just who it was Giles had hired. Bringing easy protection spells to the forefront of her mind, she bravely made the first move towards the arrival.
At the sound of slow, hesitant footsteps, Cordelia pulled Connor behind her and snatched the torch out of his grasp, ignoring his yell of annoyance. “Who’s there?” the brunette shouted with as little fear in her voice as she could manage.
“If you don’t tell me who you… Oh my God, W-Willow?” When the beam of light landed on the other young woman, recognition set in and the young mother could have been knocked over with a feather.
“Willow Rosenburg?”
The red head’s wide gaze swept over the tall brunette, taking in every detail in her appearance before landing on the little boy clutching his mom’s leg and glaring up at her as though she had done something really bad. From behind the facial mask, she could see he had big, brown eyes that seemed to burn a hole right through her.
Returning her gaze back to the young woman, Willow stumbled back a few steps and was forced to grab the banister railing for support. “Cordelia?”
Cordelia nodded as she raised her chin, daring the other girl to so much as start dishing out either questions or angered responses at her actions. The young woman didn’t know even half of her situation and couldn’t claim rights to shout or yell accusations at her. “Hello” the brunette’s voice was cool, calm and very abrupt, everything about her posture and tone simply dared Willow to say the wrong thing.
“Mom, who’s that girl and why is she looking at me like that?” Connor peered up at his mother after tugging on her black trouser leg to get attention.
“Because she doesn’t know who you are, baby. She’s as curious about you as you are about her” Cordelia’s tone of voice and demeanor towards her son was a lot warmer and a lot more comforting than her greeting to the red head.
Connor mused over the answer he’d gotten for a few moments before flickering his darkening gaze up to see the girl still looking at him in awe. “Are you sure my Zorro sword hasn’t frightened her like it did that lady?”
“I’m sure Willow isn’t frightened of your Zorro sword Connor” the brunette patiently replied with a warm, loving smile that softened the cool expression of mere seconds ago. “Why don’t you go sit down at the table near the bookshelves over there and give me a chance to talk with Willow, okay?”
“Why can’t I talk with Willow mom? I wanna know what Willow is”
The situation and conversation going on right in front of her very eyes had Willow in a state of either hysterical madness or she was hallucinating. Then again, this was the Hellmouth and so she could have slipped into an inter-dimensional portal while doing her math, or maybe she was dreaming and this wasn’t real.
Seeing the red head was about to faint through shock, Cordelia knelt down and whispered into her son’s ear something which made him jump erratically on the spot before dashing off to sit down at the table he was told too. “You can take your cloak off Connor, I’ll keep the torch pointed away from you”
“Okay mom, when will mister Giles be here? I wanna show him my picture of our old house”
“I’m sure he won’t be long baby, now if you be real good for mom and Willow now, I’ll do what I promised. Cross my heart” she crossed her heart in front of her chest to assure the five year olds’ suspicious gaze. “Now shush for a little while and sit quietly” turning her attention from Connor back to Willow, Cordelia dropped the large shoulder bag to the floor and crossed her arms.
“No!” the red head denied, “This isn’t right. I’m dreaming right and this isn’t happening?”
Did she have any idea just how predictable she was? “Willow calm down long enough to at least say hello would you? Then you can have your shot yelling at me.” The brunette counted the exact number of seconds it took for the red head to regain the ability to breathe, albeit those breaths were more like erratic puffs of air that would leave her light headed.
Her thin mouth opened and closed, making Willow closely resemble a goldfish. Her hands began to wave around in frantic circles as she tried to fathom out exactly what to say to the girl who she’d thought was probably dead. “B-but you were gone” the words were blurted out “And we thought you were dead”
Cordelia at least had the decency to appear remorseful about the fact she didn’t so much as leave a goodbye note or tell anyone where she was going. At the time, she was too confused to think about how anyone else might feel. Not only that but with Connor’s father being who he was, it wouldn’t have been a good idea to divulge that particular piece of information.
“As you can see, I’m not dead” the young brunette replied dryly as she wafted her hands down herself as proof that she really standing there.
Willow continued to shake her wide-eyed gaze at Cordelia, still not believing that the other woman had come back after five years. “We looked everywhere for you, Cordelia. What… I mean, where did you… I can’t believe this” the red head began to fan her face with rapid hand movements. “Xander was heart broken, he thought you were dead”
Anger began to replace shock as her main emotion once it registered that it really was Cordelia Chase standing in front of her. “We all thought you were dead” Willow’s voice rose, making Connor’s attention go from fiddling with his cloak to glaring warningly at the girl starting to shout at his mother.
“I don’t get it, you left without leaving a goodbye note o-or anything. No phone call, no letter. Nothing. Now y-you’re back here. In Sunnydale with a-a…” her finger pointed towards the little boy still glaring back at the red head.
“With a what?” Cordelia instantly hardened at the final statement, her body stiffened and her arms came across her chest defensively. “A child?”
Willow nodded, “A-a kid, Cordelia. What are you doing with a kid? Is he really yours or are you just looking after him?” she couldn’t picture the other woman as the motherly type whatsoever. It was all too easy to remember how the brunette had been in high school, bitchy, full of self importance, snobby, spoilt and arrogant.
No, Cordelia Chase couldn’t really be a mommy, right? That would be wrong in every sense of the word.
“What am I doing with a son?” Cordelia repeated the question, changing the word kid to son too make a point. “I wouldn’t happen to be raising him, now would I?” It was one thing for people to have a go at her but it was an entirely different situation when her son was brought into things.
When that happened, the young mom didn’t care who got hurt by her comments as long as they got the warning to back off where Connor was concerned.
Looking at the table where the five year old boy was watching them from, Willow blinked as his gaze locked onto hers. Large, soulful brown eyes peered at her through dark eyelashes that framed his eyes. His face had well structured features, a defiant chin and slightly rounded cheeks. Without the cloak and facial mask, the hacker was able to study Connor minus obstructions.
His skin was very pale, a startling contrast to the floppy black hair that swooped down over his forehead and into the big brown eyes. The hands he was using to fidget with his protective clothing were childishly small with fingers that held a little puppy fat. He had an overhanging forehead that was crinkling between the eyebrows with the beginnings of a scowl.
No matter what Willow looked at on the five year old, her gaze always came back to the deep, searing brown eyes that hadn’t looked away from her once. A flutter of recognition sparked in the pit of her stomach but she couldn’t place where she had seen those eyes, forehead and hair before. So much of the little boy’s silent mannerisms were familiar but she couldn’t think from where or who.
Luckily for Cordelia who was no where near ready to answer that question, Willow was too shocked to put some serious thought into it.
Before either the red head or the brunette could speak another word to each other, the chimes above the entrance to the shop jingled, announcing an arrival.
“Don’t turn on the light!” Cordelia yelled loudly as she spurted into action. Dashing over to Connor, the brunette fumbled and helped her son throw on his heavy cloak and dropped the material over his face. “Please for God’s sake, keep the lights off!” her heart was pounding like a bass drum in her chest with adrenalin as she continued to bundle the five year old in the material as much as possible.
Shaking herself out of the shock the sudden action had induced, Willow hurried to the front of the shop to see who it was that had entered and what it was they were after. Her sneakers squeaked against the bare floorboards as she raced down the small flight of steps, also frantically yelling for the lights to be kept off with exaggerated panicked hand waving.
“No! Off! You have to keep them off. Light not of the good for the little boy! No lights!”
“All bleedin’ right pet!” Spike held up his hands to stop the young woman from rushing him, “What the bloody hell is going on? Why are the lights all off?” his sapphire gaze narrowed suspiciously as he looked at Willow with a slanted smirk. “Got yourself a bit back there have you?”
“What? No, Goddess no” the hacker puffed as she gulped air that left soon after galvanizing her body into action. “A, uh, the little boy is photosensitive and can’t be in the light, Spike. I don’t have a ‘bit’ back there as you so charmingly put it”
The blonde vampire merely smirked and chose not to believe the girl’s denial of having a girlfriend stashed away in the Magic Shop someplace. The familiar scent that had caught his attention last night after being knocked over twice was strong in here and recognition dawned on him. Outside, there was a blue car parked between the street lights and Spike grinned at the red head watching him nervously.
“Looks like I’m gonna get me my revenge after all” he commented thickly as he easily shoved Willow to one side, ignoring the pinpricks from his chip and her yells for him not to go back there. Spike had his sights and senses locked onto who it was in the back room, nobody and he meant nobody, was going to between him and his right to vengeance on the maniac driver.
Instead of wrapping Connor back up, Cordelia had merely kept the protective cloak around him, allowing the five year old to have his eyes free while she waited for Willow to come back from dealing with whoever the arrival was. Her hands stroked her son’s head through the thick material, soothing the little boy free of his fear with kind words and gentle hugs. “Okay baby. See, there’s no light to hurt you, I promise”
Underneath the clothing, Connor gave a weak nod and allowed himself to be hugged desperately by his mother. Sometimes, even brave boys like him needed Mom-Hugs. “I know mom”
“You’re such a brave, itty bitty boy you know?” Cordelia went with humor as a counteraction to the tears threatening to fall from her eyelashes. If she could wish for one thing to happen in the world, she would wish for son to be able to be in light just for a day.
Just a day to be able to play with him in the park, watch him with children his own age and watch him as he ignored her warnings for him to not dirty his clothes.
Due to the emotional scene, Spike’s presence had gone unnoticed as he listened to and watched the brunette hug the lumpy black material sitting on a chair. He could smell the salty tears that were so close to falling, he heard the pounding of the young woman’s heart in her chest and he heard her breath clogging up her throat.
The scent was driving him nuts, he couldn’t place who the scent belonged too. Her hair was a rich shade of chestnut gleamed against the moonlight filtered through the blinds of the high window, highlighting the tumbling curls falling around her neck and hiding her face from view. Then there was the little boy who had an equally recognizable scent that he couldn’t place.
“Mom, who’s that pale man?” Connor’s words alerted Cordelia to the fact they were being watched intently by someone.
Spinning round, the brunette’s gaze landed on Spike, the vampire she’d purposely knocked over twice last night. Deep, oceanic blue orbs crashed against terrified hazel as Cordelia stood between the vampire and her son. The blonde obviously hadn’t changed since the last time she’d seen him all those years ago before being locked in the closet with Willow. Speaking of which…
“Willow? Get out! Get out now! Connor, for once do as you’re told and leave with Willow” Cordelia threw over her shoulder in the firmest voice she could manage without giving away just how scared to death she really was. Never once tearing her gaze away from Spike’s, the young mother gave out serious hostile vibes that he would no doubt pick up on and use to his utmost advantage. She relaxed somewhat when her son rushed off to go stand with Willow.
“Let my son go, Spike” she told, not asked. “You can do whatever you want with me just let him go”
Her statement confused the blonde who responded by scratching his head and cocking his head to one side, granting her with a highly confused expression. “Say what love?” She knew who he was but didn’t know about the behavioural chip? Strange, Spike thought everyone who knew him had heard about that little occurrence in his life.
Despite the genuine confusion, Cordelia refused to believe anything he said. “You heard me Spike” her voice came out a lot shakier than it did when she spoke only seconds before. “I said you can do what you want with me, but let my son go”
“Why would I want to do anything with you?” Spike smirked at his subtle insult and watched the expression it caused to cross the brunette’s pretty face. Then recognition hit him like a ten ton bag of bricks.
All thoughts of getting vengeance on her got lost in the fog of the shocking realization. His blue eyes went saucer wide, the cigarette he’d just popped between his lips fell to the floor as his mouth dropped open and he snapped his fingers. “Cheerleader?” then his gaze followed the path recently taken by the kid-sized black lump.
Everything suddenly, instantly and impossibly fell into place. Stepping closer to Cordelia, Spike inhaled her scent deeply before walking round her still form in a slow circle. Each inhalation told him the same story and gave the same impossible answer to the boy’s paternal heritage.
Standing as still as possible, she allowed Spike get close to her and scent her, feeling each exhaled response breeze across her skin. Cordelia knew there was no point in denying what the vampire had almost instantly figured out about her son’s father.
Angelus had done this once, scented her that is. He had started at the bottom of her legs, slowly moving up her aroused body, low purrs emanating from his chest.
He’d taken each breath with care, gentility and restrained control that had left Cordelia trembling with need by the time he’d reached her neck. Angelus nuzzled her throat, cheek and hair, covering her completely in his scent until he satisfied that other vampires would know exactly who owned her.
Backing away from the brunette, Spike once again appeared in front of her and cupped her face in both his hands, tilting her head to either side looking for the evidence of the claiming bite. Cordelia raised a shaking hand to push the high neckline of her sweater down to expose the deep puncture wounds that had been made so long ago.
“That what you’re looking for Spike?” she asked in a hushed whisper, “I’ll ask you this once. Please don’t tell”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, pet” it wasn’t her wrath he was intimidated by, it was Angel’s. Over the course of the last five, long years that Angelus could be more terrifying with a soul then he ever could be without it. Without a soul, you knew pretty much to expect death, chaos, mayhem and hell on Earth; with a soul Angel had complete control of his baser instincts and it was therefore harder to predict when he was going to lose control.
Normally Spike would be all for turning Angel’s life upside down and inside out, but this was most definitely not a normal situation. Besides, the cheerleader would do a good enough job without his help and all he’d have to do is sit back and watch as the proverbial shit hit the fan. This was going to be good, he could feel it in his bones and a smirk quirked up at the corners of his mouth.
“Cordelia” before the young mother or vampire could say another word, Willow reappeared on the scene with Connor directly in front of her, scowling dangerously at the man who was too close to his mom. “Don’t hurt Spike!” the red head struggled to catch her breath as she jogged up the small flight of steps to rejoin them.
Cordelia backed away from the blonde and quickly clasped her son’s hand in hers when he moved between Spike and her. “Come again, Willow?” She did say not to hurt Spike, right?
Spike raised his scarred eyebrow in amusement as the cheerleader’s gaze hardly left him. Despite the back room only being lit by a torch, the vampire had no problem seeing the kid’s eyes. His own blue gaze dropped down to the little boy glaring daggers at him through dark brown eyes that peered out from behind a mask that covered all of his face.
“Listen to the chit, pet. I’ve joined the white bloody hat brigade”
The brunette looked towards Willow in disbelief, “This is Spike. SPIKE!” she emphasized, “Remember, locked in a closet at the parent-teacher evening?”
“How could I forget?” Willow muttered, remembering how Cordelia hadn’t once shut up for the eternity they’d been locked in the janitor’s closet together while the blonde vampire and his minions had invaded the school.
“No wonder I couldn’t find you two” Spike mused with a nod, he’d looked for those two before the slayer but hadn’t been able to find them and now he knew why.
“Why haven’t you called Buffy to kill him?”
“Mom, you said killing people is a bad thing to do” Connor piped up with widening eyes. He’d never heard his mother talk so freely about killing someone before. She’d always said that killing was something only very evil people did.
“I like this kid already” Spike shot the little boy a wicked grin, “So little fellow, what might your name be?”
Cordelia was about to tell the blonde vampire to leave her son alone before telling him exactly where to go, but the five year old beat her to it when he yanked his hand out of her grip and stuck it out for Spike to shake. “My name is Connor Chase mister, but you can call me Connor” the five year old sounded so sure and confident that Willow had to crack a smile. So much like Cordelia.
Kneeling down to look into the kid’s eyes, Spike took the little hand in his much larger one and gave Connor a gentleman’s handshake. “Name’s Spike mate, pleased to meet you. Now that we’re introduced all proper, what’s say you take off your coat?” He wanted to get a good look at the boy, wanted to see if their was any resemblance between him and Angel.
Connor pointed to the torch beam pouring from the other table, “The light, mister. I can’t be in the light, I’ll get burned and have to go to hospital and everything and then mom would be sad cus she would have no-one to protect her from spiders until I got home”
Neither Willow nor Spike missed the underlying fearful tremor in the boy’s voice despite his brave words. Unlike the red head Spike didn’t have tears glistening on his eyelashes and he wasn’t swallowing back a lump of pity in his throat. That was the way life worked and there wasn’t a damn thing you could do about it except get on with it as best you could.
Cordelia stiffened as soon as she saw the pity and apathy shining from Willow’s saddened expression and hated it with a passion. Pity didn’t do anything to help except annoy both Connor and herself. “Don’t Willow” the brunette warned, “There’s no place for that so just don’t” she didn’t need or want the pity the red head was feeling.
“Baby” the five year old gave her his attention, “I’ll go turn the torch round if you want to take off your outfit.” She only had to wait for a split second for the answering smile on her son’s face.
Slowly, Cordelia backed towards the torch, always keeping her gaze locked onto the vampire in close proximity to her son. Reaching behind her, the brunette fumbled with the light and turned it so Connor was no longer in direct light and she scooted quickly back to her son’s side.
Spike and Willow watched in anticipation as Connor removed the cloak and facial mask, his young face an expression of fear and trepidation in case any light touched him. The five year old handed the cloak to his mother, took off his gloves and unwrapped the scarf from around his neck, also handing them to the brunette.
“You’re a handsome little chap” the blonde stated bringing an arrogant smirk to the kid’s face as he returned the vampire’s gaze, “Not as good looking as me o’course, but not bad”
Willow saw the pallor of his complexion, it reminded her of a vampire’s and realised that the little boy had probably never been out in the sun in all his life. He’d never played in the sand, gone swimming in the ocean or anything normal children could do. What kind of life must Connor have? How did Cordelia cope with the obviously intensive caring he needed?
“Mom says I’m the cutest guy in the world” Connor retorted with a modest shrug that didn’t match his arrogant tone, “She says that I’m even cuter than my father was”
Cordelia froze under the stares now directed at her from the red head and vampire, she knew exactly what they were both thinking. Willow’s brain would be ticking over trying to place who the father could be and Spike was thinking what she had told Connor about Angelus.
The young woman knew she would eventually have to tell the truth, but that could wait for another day when she was ready.
If she ever would be.