Part 9<\/b><\/p>\n
1998<\/i><\/p>\n
Cordelia walked up the sidewalk. She paused as she tugged at her turtleneck. God. She had hoped to never see Sunnydale High again. She thought her wish had been granted when it exploded into bits and pieces along with the snake of a mayor at graduation.<\/p>\n
She just hadn\u2019t seen any other option. It was the only place she knew with the books that could hopefully help her.<\/p>\n
Cordelia had decided against rushing right in and asking Giles for help. There was no question that Buffy\u2019s watcher was the expert in researching, but she didn\u2019t want to sound crazy until she had to.<\/p>\n
Cordy jumped as an arm flung it self around her shoulders and a \u2018hi Hon,\u2019 sounded in her ear.<\/p>\n
She turned ready to swing. Oh god. \u201cXander?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry, didn\u2019t mean to scare you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t,\u201d she said sharply.<\/p>\n
Xander shuffled a little staring at his feet. \u201cYour still mad, uh. I explained why we couldn\u2019t go to the movies last night. I had to help Buffy. I\u2019ll make it up to you tonight, I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot now, Xander.\u201d Cordelia wanted to go run back to her room. She should\u2019ve guessed at this one by the picture on her dresser and the lack of scar on her stomach. She was 17 and back to dating Xander.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot now, tonight,\u201d he grinned goofily in his very cute way.<\/p>\n
Think. Think. Think. Cordelia sighed. She couldn\u2019t do anything to uncharacteristic, like hug the young man. She actually was kind of happy to see him. That is if he had showed up a few years from then at the Hyperion, but here, now, when they were dating. Cordelia wanted to groan. Instead, she rolled her eyes. \u201cRight, if ‘little Miss likes to slay’ doesn\u2019t yank your leash.\u201d She huffed and turned her back on him going into the school.<\/p>\n
Xander sighed, shuffling his feet, watching as Cordelia\u2019s flounced away. Wow. She really did have a great ass.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Xander.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoa, down with the sneaky and scaries.\u201d Xander jumped.<\/p>\n
Buffy snorted as Willow giggled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong you with you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean other than you two taking a couple of years off my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffy rolled her eyes. \u201cPfft. Wasn\u2019t that Cordelia?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s mad at me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s new from yesterday, how?\u201d Buffy hooked an arm in his elbow. \u201cLet\u2019s go to school. You\u2019ll make up in time for your next fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willow nodded. \u201cWhich should be right after lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Cordelia stood at her locker, staring at the lock. She couldn\u2019t remember the combination. For four years, five days a week, except summers, she had twirled that stupid thing, yet for the life of her she couldn\u2019t think of the first number.<\/p>\n
Her mind was a complete blank, hell she didn’t even know what class she was supposed to be in. Screw it. She already graduated. Cordelia had the charred diploma to prove it.<\/p>\n
Cordelia headed straight for the school library.<\/p>\n
Great it was empty. Not so great, her mind changing as Giles wandered from his office his head buried in a book. Typical. \u201cHi, Giles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giles jerked his head up, stumbling a few steps as he blinked through his glasses. \u201cCordelia, aren\u2019t you supposed to be in history class?\u201d<\/p>\n
History. Cordelia nodded. And after that she had Trig, gym, lunch, chemistry, English, study hall, and then she would gather with the Scoobies to listen to Xander and Willow fawn over Buffy, while Buffy told them her latest complaints and crisis. Oz would just nodd and keep his arm looped over the pretty red head. He had been as much of a fool as she had been.<\/p>\n
On the hopeful side, maybe if Cordy were really lucky, it would just be a bad hair day rather than Buffy going on about Angel. Cordelia\u2019s thoughts jerked to screeching halt. Angel would show up eventually. Oh god. Could she see him and not run throwing herself into his arms begging him to fix whatever was happening?<\/p>\n
\u201cCordelia?\u201d Giles nudged at his glasses, concerned with the sudden lack of color on the young woman\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
Cordy gulped and brought her eyes back to the librarian. \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you well? You look quite ashen, perhaps you should sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s very good with the flattering bit, Geez,\u201d Cordelia rolled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr perhaps, you should get to your classes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,” Cordelia back peddaled. “I did feel a bit faint, sorry I got snappy. Blood loss to the head, makes me cranky, Mrs. Sanderson said I could go lie down. But, eww, lie on an infirmary bed. Who knows who\u2019s been there last and with what, so I came here. No one comes in here. Well except the dorks and the geeks.\u201d Cordelia found it a little scary how easy it was to slip back into her high school attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, well\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let me disturb whatever dusty old prophecy, scroll or spell you happened to be boring yourself with,\u201d she waved him away.<\/p>\n
Giles nodded not quite sure what to say in response.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Giles,\u201d Cordelia called after the man. \u201cWhat do you know about time travel?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTime travel?\u201d Giles paused in his return to his office. He took his glasses off and faced Cordelia. \u201cTime travel is the result of some very imaginative intelligent writers and film makers and more very bad ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you\u2019re saying fiction, this from a slayer\u2019s watcher. For a major believer of prophecies, demons, vampires, portals, witches, and other nifty supernatural stuff, you\u2019re a little closed minded, aren\u2019t you? Tsk, Tsk. So, does that mean you don\u2019t have any books on the subject in the those stacks of old books.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giles nudged at his glasses. ‘Nifty’? \u201cI believe there are some books of Fiction in aisle three.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFiction, great. Hey..\u201d Cordelia blew a burst of air through her lips. Boy, did Giles\u2019 English English get more proper and clipped when he was annoyed, just like Wesley. It must have to do with boarding schools or maybe the water in England.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me?\u201d Giles paused again in the doorway of his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked if you had a paper and pen, I left mine\u2026some where\u2026\u201d She gestured wildly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou asked, a Wesley, for paper and pen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did? Whoops.\u201d She smacked her hand over her mouth. \u201cI\u2026.wow, light headed again,\u201d she waved in front of her face briskly. \u201cBlood loss, scary thing.\u201d She beamed a great smile.<\/p>\n
Giles studied the young woman for moment. He very rarely understood his charges completely and at times found their teenage behavior quite bizarre, but Cordelia\u2019s was more confusing than usual that morning. He shook his head went into his office returning with some paper and a pen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, Giles. See I know who you are, the blood back swirling around getting those brain gears working again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. Um. I\u2019ll be in my office if you need anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordelia nodded. That didn\u2019t go to badly. On a scale of one to ten it was a definite one and half. Cordelia sighed sitting down, pulling at the paper. Time travel, what did she know? Not much only what she learned from the Star Trek episodes that Wesley had made her watch and what she had experienced for her self.<\/p>\n
She wrote. DON\u2019T CHANGE HISTORY.<\/p>\n
Good, but that didn\u2019t help her with how she ended up with her 20-year-old mind in her 17-year-old past. She sighed. Her first real coherent thought while she was driving to school had been that Wolfram & Hart was behind it some how. But by the time she pulled into the parking lot, she hadn\u2019t been able to make sense of that reasoning.<\/p>\n
Before, they had sent her back body and everything so Angelus could kill her, and then brought Angelus forward when that had failed. But, why just send back her mind. Why now? Even if Angelus showed up, Angel would protect her. Sure, the vampire of this time didn\u2019t know that she was his soul mate he thought Buffy was\u2026.eww. Cordelia shook away that painful strain of thought. She had been trying very hard not to think about the what of Buffy and Angel during this when she found herself trapped in.<\/p>\n
Questionable taste aside, Angel was still a good guy in this now and Cordelia couldn\u2019t believe that this sexy, stoic, all black wearing, major broody, obsessed with Buffy version would just sit by if his evil past self showed up and tried to kill her. So, really it wouldn\u2019t be that different than when Angelus showed up in 2002, well without the happy mind-blowing sex once the bad guys were beaten.<\/p>\n
Previous vow not to risk changing history by going straight to this Angel and unburden her plight notwithstanding, if Angelus showed up, she was running to the vampire with the soul.<\/p>\n
Cordelia sighed and rubbing at the marks under her sweater wishing so much that she was back with her Angel. She glanced down at her list. Nothing. Except the Star Trek rule and a bunch of doodles and scribbles. Big help. She squinted at the numbers written on the page. \u201cEureka.\u201d She slapped her hand over her mouth. Damn that Wesley.<\/p>\n
\u201cCordelia?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordelia smiled. \u201cHey look.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t change history?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u201d Cordelia slammed the pad down. \u201cNo, I just remembered my locker combination. Blood loss, all gone.\u201d She smiled in explanation.<\/p>\n
Giles nudged at his glasses entirely confused. \u201cWell then I guess you should go to your next class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cordelia flopped her head on the desk. Trig. She hated Trig. It wasn\u2019t fair. Cordelia had already graduated. Oh well, maybe she\u2019d remember the answers and not actually have to think about the math problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, why not.\u201d Cordelia sighed. \u201cSee ya later, Giles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part 10<\/b><\/p>\n
Present<\/i><\/p>\n
Wesley stood as Angel entered the lobby.<\/p>\n
\u201cLilah\u2019s gone, her secretary said medical leave. I searched her office, after I questioned a few other employees before security showed. Nothing, no indication what they did to Cordelia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they didn\u2019t maybe it\u2019s a new threat.\u201d Wesley suggested.<\/p>\n
Angel stared at his friend. \u201cIt\u2019s them. I\u2019ll go back and question some more tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re security will be better, Gunn and I will go with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quicker on my own.\u201d He turned going up the stairs, to Cordelia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWas that blood on his shirt, is he hurt?\u201d Fred worried her lip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t his.\u201d Gunn shook his head. \u201cQuestioning? The vamp beat the shit out of some lawyers tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe even killed some.\u201d Wesley shrugged.<\/p>\n
\u201cWesley\u2026?\u201d Fred blinked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll give a damn when I\u2019m sure that Wolfram & Hart had nothing to do with what happened to Cordelia.\u201d Wesley went back into his office.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharles?\u201d Fred asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cGirl, got to side with Wesley and the vamp on this one. It\u2019s Cordy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know, so don\u2019t you think tomorrow you and Wesley should go with him, more ground covered and lawyers questioned?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGirl?\u201d Gunn asked shocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Cordy, she\u2019s my friend.\u201d Fred stated firmly.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Angel moved the chair next to the bed, his hand moving to take hold of Cordy\u2019s still one. The warmth was still there proving life, but the spirit, the essence that made his heart impossibly beat, was absent.<\/p>\n
Angel would give his soul for hers, anything to see the light that caused those blank dead brown eyes to flare, flash and twinkle with a kaleidoscope of brown, gold and green hues. Her laugh, her scolding, her pout, her smile, god her smile, her unimaginable love, he needed it all back.<\/p>\n
Angel tightened his grasp over the young woman\u2019s hand resting his head over her low heart beat, promising the fragile sound that he would fix it, bring her back to him. He had to.<\/p>\n