She was mostly quiet on the long flight to LA.<\/p>\n
This suited Cordelia down to the ground \u2018cause it was getting harder and harder to focus. She\u2019d closed her eyes and dozed for a while; pretty weird when you considered her actual self was doing enough sleep for the both of them while resting in coma-land.<\/p>\n
Buffy\u2019s voice broke her out of her non-dream and she glanced up. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens when we get there?\u201d She asked again, half turning towards Cordelia in her seat. They\u2019d picked a random-ass flight at a random-ass time, hoping they\u2019d hit lucky and it wouldn\u2019t be full.<\/p>\n
Buffy was seated in the back, cheapo flights a blessing really because there was hardly any people back there and she could talk freely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t thought that far ahead,\u201d Cordelia admitted. She hadn\u2019t. She hadn\u2019t really considered the possibility that astral projecting herself to wherever Buffy happened to be would work, if she was honest, and everything had pretty much snowballed from that moment on.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d thought, at best, that she was only on the official wavelength of the people in the hospital. She\u2019d disproved that theory when she\u2019d shunted herself outside and felt the warmth of the sun on her face for the first time in what felt like months.<\/p>\n
Then, of course, came the inevitable guilt.<\/p>\n
Because for the brief three seconds she realised she was in control of a body that wasn\u2019t hers? She realised that she was doing to somebody the very same thing that\u2019d been done to her last year…<\/p>\n
And she\u2019d thrown herself right back out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all kinda surreal,\u201d said Buffy after a beat.<\/p>\n
Cordelia made a point of tapping non-existent fingernails against the armrest. \u201cYou think this is surreal? I\u2019m minus a body and my best friend is heading up the law firm we\u2019ve been fighting against for four years. That\u2019s surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tried to think about that for a moment but every time she did she got the feeling she was gonna lose it. Big time. So much for spanking your inner moppet,<\/i> she chastized, trying to ignore the tight feeling in her chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if you just talk to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffy snorted, \u201cTalk to him? And say what? Hi, Angel, how\u2019s things? I have Cordelia here and she\u2019s mighty pissed at you for heading up the sucky, evil law firm?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Cordelia brightened somewhat, \u201cThat could work! Although…\u201d Her mood plummeted again.<\/p>\n
Buffy looked at her. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if Wolfram and Hart are doing something to him? What if they\u2019re keeping me in my coma? They\u2019re not gonna relish you turning up and trying to break them out of whatever spell they\u2019re under.\u201d<\/p>\n
The alternative, which she\u2019d considered and banished on the slightest offchance that it was true, was that her friends didn\u2019t want her back after everything that\u2019d happened last year.<\/p>\n
Which was clearly crazy \u2018cause–Well, why visit?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think they\u2019d do that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like they haven\u2019t tried it before.\u201d She thought back to Vocah and how much simpler her first coma was… Then marvelled at the turns her life had taken when she was considering her first coma simple. God. \u201cOne time? They sent me killer visions. And they were behind the whole Darla-and-Angel fun-fest of doom during which boss-man went kinda beige, slept with the skank and gave away all my clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffy\u2019s eyes fairly popped out at that one. \u201cDarla? Angel\u2019s-Sire-who-I-staked-Darla?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordelia resisted the urge to ask how many Darla\u2019s she knew, \u2018cause–Well, Buffy had been dead that summer, hence a whole lot more important things to not worry about. \u201cOh, there is so much you don\u2019t know…\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n