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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: I did not come up with the characters of Buffy, Cordelia, yadda yadda and have no rights to them. But I'm playing around with them anyways, and not making one red cent from it.
Now she made her way through the high-school throng with a mission. Not one that she would want anyone else to know about, as it happened, but there it was. She needed to see Buffy, whom she didn't particularly like, but Buffy was the only suitable neutral party.
Cordy had done some thinking when she was in the hospital in San Fran. Quite obviously distancing herself from Xander and his loopy friends had not kept her as safe as she had hoped it would, and much as she hated to admit it to herself, she really missed the gawky twit. He sneaks up on you, she reflected idly. She hadn't realized before how much she loved Xander, but she did now - love enough even to deal with him having kissed another girl.
She wasn't going to throw herself at him, of course, or otherwise make a fool out of herself. Love or no love, she was still Cordelia Chase, and if Cordelia Chase had nothing else, she had her pride. But it would be appropriate to put a word in a friend's ear, a neutral friend, that if Xander approached Cordy with an apporpriate amount of meek grovelling, she might be disposed to take him back. Hence, Cordy's current mission to find Buffy.
Coming up to the library door, she saw Buffy's pale lank hair through the window. (Oh, my god, Cordy thought to herself, get a perm or something. And lose the bottle blonde - we all know it's fake and it doesn't do anything for your skin tone.) But as she opened the door, she heard Buffy tell Faith something that changed her mind completely.
"... So Will really doesn't know what she's gonna do. She wants to go to the dance with Xander like he asked her, I think, but she's not sure how Oz would take it if she does."
With hardly a thought Cordy turned right around and headed away from the library. So, it's not enough that he kiss Willow? He's made a formal declaration of intent to date her? Well, so much for Alexander Lavelle Harris. Cordy needed to find a new date for that masquerade dance. Someone who was everything Xander wasn't; cool, affluent, and handsome. And most importantly... a guy who would never blow her off for one of the plain girls of the Weirdness Patrol.
(Back in the library.)
"Buffy, Faith," Rupert Giles said as he entered. "Do either of you happen to know where Miss Rosenberg is?"
"Not me," Faith replied. "Hey, who's the lady?" she said, indicating Celia, who had come in right behind Giles.
"Buffy?" Giles turned to look at her.
"Willow?" Buffy clarified. "She's probably moping to herself in the computer lab about the..." she broke off, looking at Giles speculatively for a second. "About the latest teen love triangle you have absolutely no interest in. Your turn."
"My turn for what?" Giles asked bemusedly.
"Faith asked you a question. About your friend."
"Oh, ah, yes. This is Celia Johnson, a new Watcher commissioned to the Hellmouth. She'll be assisting me and working with both of you, especially you, Faith." He added after a few seconds, "She also has something to discuss with Willow."
"But you're still 'The Watcher' for both of us, Giles?" Faith clarified.
"What's your cover?" Buffy asked Celia.
"My what?" Celia responded, only a little blankly.
"You know," Buffy shrugged. "Librarian," she declared while pointing to Giles, then swung her finger around to point at Celia. "You?"
"Oh, yes. I'm a writer and a private writing teacher."
"Uh, okay." Buffy considered that. "Are we gonna have to go over to your place for 'lessons?'"
(Over in the computer lab.)
"Hey, Will," Oz said, standing awkwardly over her workstation. "Mind if I join you?"
"Oh, no, not at all." Willow smiled at him, and then turned back to the screen.
"Can I say anything about you-know-what??"
"I'd rather you didn't," Willow admitted with a small sigh.
"Okay. How was your weekend?"
"Pretty lousy... I couldn't stop thinking about the-thing-we're-not- talking-about." She turned back to him, flashing that cute smile and giggling about half a giggle.
"Me too," Oz admitted. "I spent some time practicing too, though. We Dingoes got the job for the Masquerade dance."
(In the librarian's office.)
"Well, I think that went fairly well," Giles said.
"Yes, I'm reasonably pleased," Celia said. "By the way, Rupert, there's something I've been meaning to ask. What's Faith's legal status?"
"Her what??"
"Well, she's living here without parents, only sixteen years old..."
"Oh, yes," Giles nodded, catching Celia's point. "Well, her parents died two years ago, just after she was found to be a Slayer candidate. Her previous Watcher, Eileen Stracknowski, became her legal Guardian at that point. When Faith came to Sunnydale, and we found out that Kakistos had..." he shuddered at the details he had been able to get of- "... had murdered Ms. Stracknowski, we thought that since Faith was so independent by that time, and two mysterious legal guardians might seem very suspicious..." Giles shook his head as if to get back to his train of thought. "I was able to get her legally emancipated. She takes care of herself; gets a small weekly payment from..."
"I think that's all I need to know, Rupert. So, have you given any thought to my suggestion from earlier?"
Giles thought for a second of playing dumb, but given Celia's empathic abilities she would know too soon that he understood her reference. "Yes, I have. But, well, I'm not in love with you, Celia. And I'm not sure if I could fall in love with you again- nor quite sure if it would be right to try, if you understand my meaning."
Celia smiled wanly. "Yes, I think I do. Can I just ask you to keep an open mind, Rupert? And an open heart? If it's meant to work again between us, it will."
Giles felt uneasy, but he nodded his head and said "I will."
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