{"id":3975,"date":"2015-07-05T22:19:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2015-07-06T00:52:31","modified_gmt":"2015-07-05T23:52:31","slug":"bad-timing-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/05\/bad-timing-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Timing. 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 7<\/b>: Just Peachy<\/em><\/p>\n

When Cordelia woke up, it was noon. Sunlight streamed through the shades on her window, but that wasn\u2019t what had roused her from sleep. Spike was talking to someone in the living room. She got out of bed and moved closer to the door, trying to figure out who else was in her apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, evil Charity, don\u2019t kill lil\u2019 Timmy,\u201d she heard Spike yell and giggled quietly to herself, realizing he was talking to the television. Poor Dennis, he hates \u201cPassions\u201d. <\/i>Confident that she didn\u2019t have any uninvited guests, Cordy shrugged out of the t-shirt she had slept in and jumped in the shower.<\/p>\n

How odd is it that I hear Spike yelling at a soap opera outside my bedroom and I am totally cool with it? It\u2019s so weird. Me and Spike. I think we might be becoming friends. Lord. <\/i><\/p>\n

She and Spike had gotten along rather well since leaving the Hyperion in the early morning hours. How weird had that been? Cordelia still had no idea exactly why she had even offered Spike a place to stay. Her experiences with him hadn\u2019t been altogether pleasant. And yet last night, his presence had been nice; comforting even.<\/p>\n

She had made fun of the De Soto, Spike made the appropriate shocked noises as Cordelia told the story of Darla\u2019s return and demise. He accepted Connor\u2019s presence with a typically Spike attitude, remarkably blas\u00e9 considering the circumstances.<\/p>\n

By the time they reached her apartment, she was too tired to do much more than introduce him to Dennis and toss a pillow on the couch for him.<\/p>\n

*
\nIn the living room, Spike heard the shower come on and realized Cordelia was up. She seemed like a totally different person than the girl he had known\u2014oops, strike that, the girl he hadn\u2019t really known at all back in Sunnydale. She had taken him home with her, gave him all the gossip in between yawns, and even offered to heat up a cup of blood for him.<\/p>\n

Why a 21-year-old girl has pig\u2019s blood in her fridge is beyond me. <\/i><\/p>\n

Looking around the living room with a more detailed eye, Spike noticed a few other things that seemed out of place in a young single girl\u2019s apartment. There was a collapsible bassinet lying against the wall near the door. He had come across tons of books last night on raising babies (along with a surprisingly enjoyable collection of trashy romance novels).<\/p>\n

Plus, there were pictures everywhere. A number of Wesley and Gunn, one or two from the Hellmouth, but most of them were of Connor. Actually most of them were Angel and Connor. \u201cChrist, Peaches is all over this apartment,\u201d Spike mumbled to himself.<\/p>\n

Right then Cordy walked out of her bedroom in a short white terrycloth robe, toweling off her hair. \u201cYou even smell like him,\u201d Spike said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI smell like who?\u201d Cordelia asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcuse me, I don\u2019t use some 99 cent Suave-like fruity shampoo. This is Bumble and Bumble my friend. It is an intense conditioning and moisturizing formula with extracts from all sorts of stuff, none of which are peaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot peaches the fruit. Peaches. As in Angel\u2026the fruit,\u201d Spike said, smirking.<\/p>\n

For some reason, the comment threw Cordelia. She didn\u2019t smell Angel on herself. She would know if she smelled like Angel. Smelling like Angel, would that be a good thing or a bad thing?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know whether to deny it or be proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up Spike. I don\u2019t know what you are talking about. I don\u2019t smell like peaches or like Angel. I just took a shower. I smell like Irish Spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo you smell like a certain Irish man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cordelia huffed and gave up, walking into the kitchen to start coffee. Spike wasn\u2019t going to let her win this one so it was better to just quit fighting. She knew. He was acting just like her.<\/p>\n

\u201cCheerleader, I\u2019ll take you up on that offer of blood now,\u201d Spike said following her into the kitchen.<\/p>\n

As she tossed a bag of blood into the microwave with a shocking degree of unconcern, Spike added, \u201cAnd then we can sit down and have a nice long talk about you and my grand-sire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about us?\u201d Cordelia asked, not looking up from the coffeemaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that you two are an \u2018us\u2019. You like him. No, don\u2019t try to deny it. I\u2019m not blind you know. Not like I\u2019d need to be Sherlock bloody Holmes to figure it out. You\u2019re the kind of chit who can\u2019t hide what she feels. Not really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cordelia was startled to hear the words that came out of Spike\u2019s mouth. He\u2019d been in town for like a total of ten minutes and he knew. Great, if I\u2019m that obvious, I\u2019m screwed, everyone must know by now. Okay, Cordy, play it cool. Maybe you can convince him that he\u2019s wrong. <\/i>\u201cPlease Spike. Angel and I, we\u2019re just friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not the first woman to tell me she and Angel were just friends. That was laughable the first time I heard it but it\u2019s sounds even more ridiculous now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUghhh,\u201d Cordy moaned as she handed Spike a cup of blood. \u201cWhat\u2019s ridiculous is the idea of me and Angel. It\u2019s, it\u2019s\u2026inconceivable. It\u2019s as crazy as saying you\u2019re in love with the Slayer.\u201d When she didn\u2019t get a response, Cordelia looked up from putting Equal in her coffee. Spike appeared to be having a lot of trouble swallowing his mouthful of blood. And if it was possible, he seemed to have gone even paler.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my god. That\u2019s it, isn\u2019t it? That\u2019s why you are here. Cause, cause you\u2026\u201d Cordelia trailed off. She never finished the sentence. She saw that look on his face, that pained, awful look. She wouldn\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n

Sensing she wasn\u2019t going to finish that sentence, Spike opened his eyes and looked at the woman in front of him. She took a sip of her coffee but her eyes never left his, and in them, he saw something. It wasn\u2019t pity. Understanding maybe? In that moment, in the silence, the two seemed to reach an unspoken agreement.<\/p>\n

Things were communicated, things neither felt like talking about out loud, ever. It was very poignant, until Cordelia\u2019s stomach growled. Loudly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d Cordy said. \u201cSince all I have in my fridge is a three-year-old Lean Cuisine and I am really not a fan of the pig\u2019s blood, we better head over to the hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part 8<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 7: Just Peachy When Cordelia woke up, it was noon. Sunlight streamed through the shades on her window, but that wasn\u2019t what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-completed-fics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goteamfiction.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}