A/N: I am titling this Interlude: Cordy/Xander because these two were going to dominate Chapter twelve. Instead of including this in Chapter twelve, I am giving them their own peice of the story. Even if you are not a Cordy/Xander fan, I hope you give it a read. Chapter 17 will reference this in a small way. I had actually posted this as a oneshot under the title "Secrets of the Hellmouth" but wanted some continuity so I am adding here as well. This story is NOT forgotten, but I just got sidetracked by little things - the damn muse keeps giving me story idea

I also included one of my favorite SPN guest appearances...but I won't say who! But I think you need to listen to Bell Biv DiVoe when reading this *hint*

Also, in no way does Xander having a small towel indicate that he has a small anything, lol.

Disclaimer: Seriously, Joss is Boss and I am not Joss, nor am I Kripke.

Interlude: Cordy/Xander

"What the fuck?"

Cordelia widened her eyes in disbelief as the car slowed down and her steering wheel lost its maneuverability. Frustrated when the car continued to slow, she pressed her foot down on the gas but it had no effect. Using both hands, she rotated the wheel to the right and attempted to steer the car off to the side of the road. The car sputtered a few times and then completely stopped. She tried to turn the key in the ignition and leaned back in exasperation when nothing happened.

"Great. Just great." She looked out the window at the deserted highway and was grateful that it was still light out. She had taken the seldom used highway both as a shortcut to her destination and because she enjoyed the ocean scenery, but it was not an ideal location to get stranded.

She pulled out her purse and rooted around inside, smiling when her fingers touched her cell phone.

"Hello, my little 'knight in shining armor'. Who needs a man to come to my rescue when I have you?" she purred, looking down at the purple device only to toss the phone on to the passenger seat in disgust a few seconds later.

She couldn't get a signal to make a call.

As she leaned back in her seat and considered her options, she glanced out of the car window and felt relief spread through her at the sight of a person emerging from the ocean – seriously the guy could have starred in some commercial for selling…well anything. His body was built. He was walking over to a large, beached log and bent down to pick up a towel.

"Cordy, this is your lucky day! I bet he has a car and can get you a lift back to Sunnydale." And perhaps a phone number…

Quickly, she scrambled out of the car and made her way toward the stranger. He had turned his back and was facing the ocean and as she got closer, she began to appreciate his physique even more than before. Broad shoulders, long, lean muscles on his back and grrr-eat ass. His body was gorgeous!

She reached the beach and began to make her way across the sand (or rocks since there was little sand to be found on this section of the shore) grateful that she had worn flats rather than the strappy four-inch heals that she had just purchased the day before.

"Hello!" she said, trying to get the man's attention. He bent down and was pulling on a pair of sweat pants but straightened up at the sound of her voice.

"Hey there, you handsome hunk! I'm hoping you can be my savior." He started to turn around and Cordy continued "I am having some car trouble and I was wondering…oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!"

Life, she decided, was not fair.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth Queen C?" The stranger with the body of Adonis was no stranger.

It was Xander Harris.

Xander fucking Harris, owner of the lips, tongue and kisses that had invaded some of her more x-rated dreams. He was facing her now and she got a full visual of his body. (The same body that had pressed up against her at the Bronze a few weeks before and God, if the thought of it still didn't make her tingle all over.)

Her mouth went dry and she gave herself the hardest mental bitch slap she could.

"I'm sorry; I had mistaken you for a member of the human race. I didn't realize it was actually a member of the Freak-Squad." Her caustic tone helped to disguise the uncertainty she felt inside.

"Of which I am Captain, so that will be Captain Freak to you." He leaned down and picked up a light weight t-shirt and she almost made a comment asking who had been stupid enough to rob him of hideous Hawaiian shirt collection as he was rarely seen wearing anything else. (Seriously, it was like the guy owned stock in Hideous Hawaiian Shirts R Us, he had so many of them and she couldn't believe that she even thought it was worth noticing!)

He pulled the shirt over his head and she had to dig her nails into her palm to keep from reaching out to touch the muscles in chest that moved so enticingly at the movement, earning yet another mental bitch slap from her practical self. Cut it out, Cordy.

"I would have thought your precious Buffy would be Captain." She wondered why she was still here when she should be walking back to her car.

He leaned down and picked up his socks and running shoes before sitting on the log to put them on.

"She's President. Madam President to you."

Okay Cordelia…step back from the freak and walk away, she told herself. Instead…

"That leaves poor Willow…" she said snidely.

Xander gave her an indecipherable look then continued putting his shoes on.

"Director of Public Relations." She couldn't stop the snort that escaped her mouth. No, this is NOT funny she told herself sternly, Xander Harris is not amusing. He is not drool worthy and definitely NOT sexy.

"Well now that this conversation has made it to its lame-ass conclusion, I will be on my way."

"Okay. Good luck finding a savior." His shoes were tied and he leaned down to pick up his towel, which she noticed was more the size of hand towel. He shook it off and rolled it up and stuffed into a …oh my God …fanny pack. Who wears a fanny pack these days? She would have been embarrassed for him, if she cared. Which you don't! She reminded herself.

"I hardly think you could be mistaken as anyone's savior, freak."

Xander stood and buckled the fanny pack around his waist, propped one ankle on top of the log and began to stretch. She did not notice the way the fabric of his sweat pants pulled tightly over his ass – or any other part of his anatomy.

"You did." With the smirk that never failed to irritate her to no end, he looked over at her. Lowering his voice, he looked her in eye and said "And I told you, it's Captain Freak to you, Your Highness." He was not sexy, she reminded herself. Yeah right, his voice isn't making your gut clench and his kisses didn't make your toes curl either!

Disturbed by her reaction to him, Cordelia walked away, carefully picking her way over the rocks back to her car.

She would never admit it out loud, but ever since the night at the Bronze, she had watched him a lot.

It drove her crazy when she would get the occasional glimpse of him in the halls and she realized she had been looking for him. Her heart would pound as she pretended to become fascinated by whatever drivel Harmony was spouting at the time and purposefully ignore him when she walked by.

It drove her insane was that she never once caught him watching her. Guys, especially the boys at Sunnydale High, always watched her. She knew he used to watch her all of the time…until that night at the Bronze.

She sighed and looked at her car.

Hoping for a different outcome, she got into the driver's seat, slid the key into the ignition and attempted to turn it. Nothing happened. Grabbing her cell, she got out of the car and walked around the area, hoping to get a strong enough signal to make a call. She ignored the figure she saw approaching her out of the corner of her eye. She ignored the way her heart pounded just a little harder in her chest.

She walked across the road, holding out her cell phone in the air as she stood on her tip-toes. No luck. Defeated, she walked back toward her car. Unable to ignore the teen that now stood next to her car with his hip against the driver's door, she pushed him out of the way (and did not flashback to how good that chest felt pressed up against- stop it Cordy!) and wrenched open the door.

"Don't you have an elsewhere to be?" she muttered.

His lips twitched and he wiggled his eyebrows at her. "I do. But I thought I would do my 69th Good Samaritan Act of the year." What the hell does that even mean? Seriously, who talks like that?

He leaned forward slowly, his eyes first looking into hers (yes...looking at her, not looking through her) before he looked at her lips. She resisted the urge to lick them (HA! Lick him you mean) and her heart began to pound a little harder, a little faster as she anticipated the kiss.

Instead, his hand brushed her hip and gently moved her to the right before he reached down to the floor of her car and pulled the lever to eject the hood. She blinked when he had moved away and propped the hood of her car to inspect the engine.

She was not disappointed that he didn't kiss her damn-it!

"I can't get a signal to call for a tow truck. Can you give me a lift back to town?"

He raised an eyebrow in inquiry then looked around at the deserted stretch of road.

"I'm sorry. Are you under the impression I drove here?" She wrinkled her brow and then asked the obvious.

"You didn't?" He snorted, but made no comment.

"How did you get here then?" He said nothing, but stared at her until she felt a flush crawl up her neck. Duh, Cordy she thought as she took in his attire.

"You ran here? We're at least five miles from town and you ran here?" First swimming in the ocean and then running? Since when did Xander Harris embrace jock-like habits?

"Well" he inclined his head at her car, "not all of our daddies have the dough to buy us our own car- some of our fathers drink their paychecks away. So, when I feel the need for a swim, I come out here."

"Why not use the community pool or the school pool?"

"That would defeat the purpose, then, wouldn't it?"

"To swim?" The look he gave her was one she had seen a thousand times on a thousand faces. It was the "God, she is so stupid!" look that she had come to dread. Irritation put her back up and her hand itched to smack the look off his face.

"To be alone." He clarified as he looked back at the engine and her attention was drawn to his hands as they moved around different parts of the engine, testing connections and occasionally lifting a plastic covering. Those same hands that gripped her waist at The Bronze just a few short weeks before…

She had been fuming over Sam Winchester finding that morbid freak Buffy Summers (of all people!) more desirable, when Xander bumped into her on the way toward the men's room at The Bronze. Her ego had taken a severe blow and she needed to give herself a little boost.

She grabbed Xander just as the lights went out. She had seen him ("HA! Waited for him, you mean" her inner voice mocked her) when he came out. When she heard the singer announce the blackout and just as the lights went out, she grabbed him. She knew he had always had a crush on her and her ego needed a boost.

She just meant to kiss him long enough to know that he wanted her. Then she was going to walk away. She felt a spark of triumph when she felt his arousal. When his hands touched her waist, any thoughts of stopping flew out of her head.

She never expected to like it.

She never expected to feel that instant stab of desire course through her. And she never expected the forceful way he would flip them and trap her against the wall, causing her to open her mouth and give him a chance to play tonsil hockey with her. Her hands moved up behind his neck and she tightened her grasp, pulling him closer to her. She felt his legs, chest (when did Xander Harris get muscles?) and it wasn't enough…

The next day, she had felt mortified and dreaded the return to school. Since they shared classes, she was afraid he would say something and then the whole school would know. Or, even worse, thought that because she had kissed (devoured you mean) him, that it meant they were an item and he was a boyfriend.

She should have been relieved when she first walked by him, palms dampened with anxiety and mouth dry and he looked through her, as if she didn't exist – that those moments they spent plastered against each other in the Bronze had never happened.

It was a first for Cordelia Chase.

The hood of the car slammed down, effectively jerking Cordelia's thoughts out of the past and back into the present. In an effort to keep her thoughts focused and away from that night and those hands (which lead to those lips and those kisses – which led her back to those hands again), Cordelia seized upon his last comment.

"So you jog or run or whatever, for five miles to swim along a deserted beach, just to be alone? Why – are you training for a triathlon or something?" He gave her another of those looks and she rolled her eyes. "Yes. I know what a triathlon is." Her father's company was one of the sponsor's for the Ironman Triathlon, which practically shutdown Oceanside, a town to the north of Sunnydale, every March.

"No triathlon. It just…helps… that's all." His cryptic words only fueled her curiosity, which must have showed on her face when he added, "It's good for the…spirit." He found something about his statement funny because he smiled (if you could count the cold, hard twist of his lips as a smile) as he said the words.

Xander went through the still-open door of her car and sat in the driver seat while he gave the key an experimental twist. Still nothing.

"No need to call a tow-truck Cordelia." Amusement shone in his eyes as he looked at her with that look. He tapped the fuel gauge on the dashboard. "You're out of gas."

Crap!

"Guess you should put on your walking shoes, Highness. I seem to recall that there is a gas station about two miles back, so it shouldn't take you too long to walk there and buy a gallon of gas. You might get lucky and be able to charm someone to drive you back to your car."

He handed Cordelia back her keys.

Cordelia knew the gas station he was talking about and gave an involuntary shudder. "You mean that creepy old station that doubles as a "Crosses R Us?" He had turned away but stopped at her words. Slowly, he turned back toward her.

Cordelia continued, recalling the one time she had stopped to fill up with gas there. "You know how some gas stations sell a lot of touristy beach themed junkk – picture frames and lamps made from shells and other crap like that?" He nodded. "Yeah, well this place sold crosses. The old man had hundreds of them on the walls inside of his gas station. He was really creepy. He kept insisting I should buy a cross and when I told him no thank you, grabbed my hand started talking about the mouth of hell - and that's when I decided to get the hell out of there. I haven't gone back since."

Xander stared at her intently. "He said 'The mouth of hell'?"

"Well, not really. He said 'Boca del Infierno', which translates into Mouth of Hell. Anyway, it was weird and it was creepy." Xander looked away from her and toward the horizon, where the sun hung low. Already the sky was filled with swirls of orange and pink. Immediately, his demeanor changed. Gone was the amused expression and when he looked at her, his eyes were serious.

His next words were curt. "Well, creepy or not, it has gas, so grab your purse and let's go."

For once Cordelia didn't argue or have a smart ass cutting remark about cave-man attitudes. She grabbed her purse, locked the doors and they walked towards Sunnydale.

The walk was quiet. Xander, aware that she was only wearing flats that were more decorative than functional, kept the pace somewhat slower than he wanted. The sun continued its descent and he could almost hear nature's clock ticking as sundown approached. Tick tick tick.

Stupid son-of-a-bitch.

He kicked himself for forgetting for even an instant of where they lived. He almost left her at the car, alone and defenseless, practically wearing a come-bite-me sign around her neck. He didn't even want to think about what could have happened to her if he hadn't come out here for a swim today. He hadn't planned on it until Tony woke up earlier this afternoon with a severe hangover and accused Xander of drinking the last of the beer. It had taken one push and a raised fist, and Xander began taunting his father, almost begging him to throw a punch.

Tony, sensing how close to edge Xander was, quickly backed down.

Xander knew he needed to do something, anything to get that primal part of him to recede; he quickly changed clothes and ran at a steady pace toward this deserted beach. Exercise, pushing his body to its limit, was one way to give into the hyena's desire for physical activity. It was preferable to giving into its other desire – tearing his father apart.

Xander hated his father, but he didn't want to be the cause of his death. He just wished Tony would…leave and not come back. Ever.

They had been walking for about twenty minutes and she had yet to complain about the blisters that must have begun to form on her feet. He could tell she had them, since she had begun to walk with a slight limp. Or at least she did, until she caught him looking down at her feet. In that moment, she straightened her spine and the limp disappeared.

Cordelia Chase wasn't such a spoiled princess after all. He was kind of proud – not that he would ever let her know that, of course.

He refrained from commenting, an unusual reaction for him, since even having Queen C in his line of sight tended to up his Snark-O-Meter. It was an immature reaction and he knew it, but he was a teenaged boy- which meant he was the emotional equivalent of a seven year old. He might as well pull her hair and shoot spit balls at her.

Today, she was different. That threw him off.

Her clothes were different. Nothing about her outfit screamed 'designer'. He didn't pay attention to girl's clothing too much – except to notice how much leg a skirt showed or how much cleavage a shirt revealed. As always, she looked gorgeous. Yet, there were little things that he noticed that seemed at odds with how she usually dressed.

Her hair long, glossy chestnut hair was pulled back into a ponytail; her face looked like a Noxzema commercial – clean, flawless and barely any makeup. Her clothes were different – her skirt was longer than the kind she usually wore, the bottom swished around her calves and while the blouse she wore was pretty, it didn't scream SEX the way most of her other tops did.

He still thought about sex though – something about Cordelia Chase brought it out in him. Which made being around her bad, very, very bad. Cordelia + lusty, dirty, naughty thoughts = hyena eyes = well… he didn't even want to go there.

He had gotten very good at pretending Cordelia Chase didn't exist, didn't distract him and didn't haunt his dreams.

He diverted his thoughts to the most un-sexiest thing he could think of – Uncle Rory getting it on with the lunch lady. A shudder rolled down his spine and he wanted to grin at his success. Mission accomplished.

The gas station came into view and he heard Cordelia exhale with relief.

"About damn time." She muttered.

He bit his lip to keep from making a disparaging remark (an old habit) along the lines of "poor princess" and "tired from a little walk" when he saw her grimace with discomfort…and still she didn't complain. His previously non-existent Cordelia-Chase-Respect-O-Meter shot up a few more notches.

They continued toward the station in silence. As they got closer, Xander began to scan the area. The owner couldn't be cross happy without a good reason.

The outer area seemed non-descript, but he noticed faint markings on the wooden stairs and porch. He opened the door and the bell above their heads announced their arrival.

And can we say "Holy Crosses Batman"? What wall space that wasn't covered by shelves and bookcases, had a cross on it. There were – literally- hundreds of crosses inside the room. Large, small, wooden, silver, Celtic and Christian – they were everywhere.

They stepped over the threshold and Xander, feeling something gritty under his shoe, looked down. There was a coarse and white substance that had been laid on the floor in front of the door.

Salt. Xander immediately made the connection, thanks to his friendship with Sam. Whoever owned this station was familiar with the supernatural and used a few Hunter's tricks.

Cordelia nudged him and raised her eyebrow in an expression that clearly meant "Creepy, right?"

"Hello?" he called into the dim interior. From another room, he heard "Poison" by Bel Biv DeVoe playing.

There was very little sunlight left and he wanted to get Cordelia back to her car as fast as possible.

Judging by the interior of the store, the owners were no stranger to the happenings of the HellMouth and Xander wondered if trouble was a nightly occurrence. He should come back here after taking care of Cordelia to see if they needed any help.

The hyena inside him cackled in anticipation at just the idea of a fight.

Fuck my life.

Why couldn't he have been possessed by the spirit of something…sexier and "A-List" like a lion or a panther…something with the moves of a "jungle cat". Does he get sexy-primal animal spirit? Nope. Xander Harris gets the "D-List" Hyena…Scavenger of the Savannah.

Fuck my life he thought again.

Quick, light footsteps announced the arrival of a tall, thin, man with brown hair and blue eyes and wore a pair of camouflage army pants with a brown t-shirt. He looked like he was only a few years older than them.

"How can I help you?"

"We need to buy some gas and hopefully a container as well."

The man went the windowed wall behind the clerk's counter and leaned over, placing one long, thin arm on the wall as he looked out the window at the two ancient pumps. It was obvious they didn't drive here.

"Had to walk a ways, did you?"

"Just a little bit." Cordelia interjected with a note of irony.

"I'm Garth. Welcome. I might have some canisters in the back. Feel free to look around." His long legs carried him quickly out the same door he came through.

Cordelia shifted her weight as she pivoted her expression clearly unimpressed with the gas station's merchandise.

"Are you okay?" Xander gestured toward her feet.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Please. I am a cheerleader. If I was bothered by a few blisters, I would have been kicked off the team after the first practice."

Xander watched her walk toward a shelf and noticed her steps were even. He wondered how much the effort to walk normally was costing her.

He walked over to the wall that held some dusty books and examined the bindings. Sam and Giles would be in research heaven. Xander made note of the titles so he could tell Sam about them tomorrow when they all met him in the chat room Willow had created.

His breath hitched when he spotted a slim volume with gold lettering. "Spirits of Myth and Legend: Africa" I wonder…glancing at Cordelia he made a mental note to come back and buy the book later.

Reluctantly, he kept moving, but he promised himself he would return after he got Cordelia safely back to her car.

He saw a small cleverly worded sign near the register that told customers about "custom bullets," (he was sure the bullets weren't packed with gun-powder) a shelf filled with flasks of varying sizes (holy water, he assumed), and some leather holsters. A few holsters were for guns of varying sizes, but a few looked suspiciously like the one he was usually wore at the small of his back, adapted to hold a stake rather than a gun. The holster was designed to clip over a belt and rest against between his waist band and skin, unobtrusive but easily accessible.

Today, he still had a stake on him, but instead of a holster it was secured by a loop of wide thick elastic sewn into the waistband of his sweatpants.

Garth returned, carrying a small gas container in each hand which he set on the glass counter. Cordelia went to pay.

Xander looked outside and then back at the attendant. "What time do you close? We need to come back and fill up her tank."

"Don't close, we are always open. I take the night shift and my Dad takes the day shift. He is named Garth too." He grinned them then rang the items on the cash register.

Xander nodded as the man calculated the cost of the containers and the gas needed to fill them. Garth looked at Cordelia. "Would you like to buy a cross?"

"No, thank you." Cordelia said, handing over her credit card.

Xander fingered the rack of cross necklaces where the size of the cross ranged from about half an inch to about two inches in length. He selected a medium sized cross that was silver and hung on a silver chain.

"She will take this one."

He undid the clasp as he moved behind her and was placing the necklace around her neck before she could protest. She shivered when his fingertips grazed the back of her neck as he fastened the chain. Telling himself that she was probably just cold, he turned away quickly before he gave in to his impulse to lean down and kiss her neck.

Garth handed her the receipt for her signature and Xander picked up the containers and walked out the store. Using the closest pump, he quickly filled the containers with fuel. When he was done, he screwed the lids back on the containers.

"Let's go." He said and they began to walk to her car. They needed to move fast, the desire to keep her safe had him quickening their pace. Cognizant of the blisters on her feet, he searched for something to distract her and keep her walking fast.

She fingered the necklace at her throat and looked at him sideways. Obviously, she had something to say to him and he held back a smile at her restraint. Normally, Cordelia wouldn't hesitate to tear into him.

Luckily, after years of verbal sparring with Cordelia, he knew the right buttons to push.

"I know silver is not as valuable as gold, Princess, but it's a gift. It would be rude and uncharitable to take it off."

Her eyes widened then narrowed in irritation and her hands clenched into fists.

"Gift?" she practically shrieked the word and he was pleased when her stride lengthened as she kept pace with him. "I paid for it! What do mean gift?"

Knowing it would drive her crazy, he shrugged. "It's the thought that counts." She gritted her teeth then began to call him every insult she knew. The angrier she got, the faster he walked. He sneered when he gave his responses, leered when he knew it would piss her off and practically cheered when her car finally came into sight. He wasn't sure how much longer he could have kept it up.

The last remaining vestige of daylight had almost disappeared. He fed the gas into her car, plucked the keys from her as she sputtered with outrage and was soon driving them back to the gas station. The faster he got her on the road and away from him the better.

He should have known that none of his plans ever went as smoothly as he wanted them to.

As soon as they arrived, Cordelia stalked into the store to prepay for gas and Xander filled the car with gas. A shiny, new grey Camero pulled into the gas station as he idly watched the numbers roll on the old fashioned pump as he dispensed the fuel. Just a few more minutes, Xan, then you can go back to pretending Cordelia Chase doesn't exist, that you don't spend every waking moment thinking about her…

He heard the motor of the Camero shut off and the doors of the car open and close. He felt the newcomers stare as they watched him for a few moments.

Xander tapped the gas dispenser nozzle against the opening of the gas tank.

"Excuse me." One of the men finally spoke. "We're new in town and we are looking for something to eat." The man's companion thought this was funny and snickered. Xander looked at them.

Fuck my life he thought again.

Garth made small talk with Cordy while he loaded her few purchases into a white plastic bag (diet coke, Big Red gum and a small box of band aids). She responded to his questions with non-committal answers that bordered on rude, but it did not seem to bother the affable man in the least.

"Can I interest you in a purchasing a book?"

Jeeze, he didn't stop. She bought a cross earlier and now he was trying to sell her a book. She glanced at the title and she wondered how the store ever made money selling crap like that.

His expression was so earnest that she held back one of her usual sarcastic comments and just shook her head. Unfazed, he put the book down beside her bag and swiped her credit card through the reader.

He referred to Xander as her boyfriend and she didn't correct him.

Instead, she looked out the window and took a moment to watch Xander.

Garth pushed the credit card receipt toward her and she signed it, then returned it back to the man.

A gray Camero pulled beside one of the pumps and Cordelia watched three guys get out of the car. One walked toward the building, but instead of coming into the store, veered left around the side of the building.

The other two seemed to watch Xander. Distracted, Cordelia walked toward the door. She had watched enough jocks tease and torment and recognized the stance of a bully. She had her hand on the door, but another hand – long, thin and surprisingly strong – grasped her wrist.

"I wouldn't go out there just yet." He said.

Cordelia frowned at his hand and pulled her wrist away. His grasp tightened briefly then he let go.

"At least just wait for a moment, while I get something from the back." He stared intently until she nodded uncertainly at him. Satisfied, he left the room.

She hesitated briefly, and then pulled the door open.

Later, she wondered if things would have gone differently if she waited for Garth.

The two guys started to circle Xander as she walked down the steps. As soon her feet stepped off the steps and landed on the concrete pad, she felt a presence beside her. She was pulled sideways. One (ugh) hairy arm circled her waist from behind and the other hung over her shoulder and groped her breast.

"Let go of me!" she struggled ineffectively to get out his grasp and he pulled her toward his companions.

"Look boys. I found a snack!" He snickered and his companions laughed crudely. Cordy continued to struggle and his hold tightened around her waist.

"You want to let go of her." Xander's voice was cold and furious, the sound so dangerous that Cordelia and her attacker froze. Cordelia blinked, certain she was seeing things...his eyes weren't really glowing...right?

"What are you going to do about it, Boy?" she felt cold fingers against her skin as he slid his hand down her shoulder and into the collar of her shirt.

Then everything happened fast.

The man gasped and withdrew his hand like he touched something that burned him and she smelled something that could only be described as completely gross. He backed away, clutching his smoking hand and looked at her.

"Bitch!" he snarled. Her eyes widened as she got a good look at his yellow eyes, fangs (oh my god, he has fangs! She thought) and cosmetically challenged forehead.

Then she heard something go swish and the guy exploded into a cloud of dust.

"You have been Garthed."

The voice came from behind her and she turned and saw Garth holding something like a bow and arrow, except he held it with one hand. He looked at Xander and aimed the contraption toward him. Something flew out of it and toward one of the guys that was fighting Xander. Xander Harris was actually fighting…throwing punches and taking hits to the face like something from the movies.

The guy exploded into a cloud of dust as well.

Then Xander pulled something from behind his back and stabbed the remaining guy in the chest.

Another cloud of dust.

Shocked, Cordelia could only stare with wide eyes and try to process what had happened.

There had been three guys…now there were none. People didn't have fangs and bumpy foreheads and explode into dust and have glowing eyes. People didn't.

So what were they? A small voice inside questioned. Cordelia wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer - about the guys or about Xander.

A strange buzzing sounded in her ears and seemed to distort all other sounds around her. Xander was beside her, his arm around her waist. His lips were moving, but his words seemed muffled and unimportant. He led her over to her car. He opened the door and gently eased her in, touching her as if she was made of some incredibly fragile substance and would shatter if moved too abruptly. Maybe he was worried she would explode in dust too?

She had the insane urge to giggle, but stifled it.

He turned to Garth they spoke to each other but couldn't seem to focus on what they were saying, since the strange buzzing sound was still in her ears. She could only focus on the occasional word and when her addled mind put them together, they made no sense.

…shock…slayer…watcher…hunter...

She leaned against the window of her car and closed her eyes, remembering the events that just happened and tried to make sense of everything.

She started at the sound of knuckles on the glass of her window. She turned her head and saw Garth holding a white plastic bag. Dumbly, she gazed at him. Cautiously, he opened the door and placed the bag in her lap.

"You bought them earlier. I didn't want you to forget them." She nodded and he squatted down until he was eye level.

"You're going to be okay, you know." For some unknown reason, his words reassured her and she nodded at him. Xander got into the driver's seat and Garth closed her door.

She said nothing for the first few minutes. She could feel Xander looking at her every few seconds and she knew he was thinking she was about to fall apart and start freaking out. She caught his glance out of the corner of her eye and was relieved to see that his eyes weren't glowing.

The closer she got to Sunnydale, the calmer she became. Her mind rewound and replayed the events until she had figured out what happened. It all made sense now.

They passed by familiar buildings – first the mall, then the downtown coffee shops and finally the residential district.

"I am going to have my father talk to the mayor." She said. For the first time she looked at Xander and was confused by his bemused expression.

"These gas leaks that happen every once in a while are ridiculous. Something needs to be done. It can't be healthy that we keep getting exposed like that…I mean the hallucinations alone…" she stopped when he jerked the steering wheel, pulled the car to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes, his face incredulous.

"Unbe-FUCKING-lievable!" he exploded and she flinched at the fury in his tone. He got out of the car and slammed the door. Then he paced back and forth in front of the car. Confused, Cordelia got out of the car and approached him. He stopped and gave her that look.

"God!" he exclaimed savagely, "Are you really that blind? Open your eyes, Cordelia! Look around and open YOUR GODDAMN EYES."

"God. What's your damage Xander?" Her calmness evaporated and she blinked to keep back the tears.

"Do you have any idea how many funerals the average teenager attends?" He didn't wait for an answer. " One, maybe two."

He looked away from her.

Then he said softly, "How many funerals have you attended in the last 12 months? Hell, how many since school started in September? Or have you stopped going entirely?"

He looked at her and sighed.

"Believe what you want Princess. It was just some gang hopped up on PCP and there must have been a gas leak somewhere that gave you hallucinations. Go home."

He turned and walked away.

Six.

She opened her mouth to tell him, but something held her back. She had attended six funerals since September. That didn't count the ones she missed because she was avoiding them.

Slowly, Cordelia got back into her car and drove home. She thought about the past, things she had seen and heard - things that always seemed to have a plausible explanation. For the first time, she consciously began to connect the dots and she didn't like the picture it made.

When she got home, she carried the small bag up to her room and dumped the purchases on her bed. Picking up her soda, she popped the tab and took a sip and looked at the one item she didn't buy. Something Garth put in the bag.

She fingered the lettering on the cover and stared at the title for a long time.

"Secrets of the Hell-Mouth" she whispered the words. Then she opened the book and began to read.

Her eyes were open now. She had seen things...she had seen him. There was no turning back now.

Stay tuned...

A/N: Hope you liked Garth. I hope you liked this, it is more of an interlude than anything and mainly I am keeping it in the fic because I like it. Hope to have next installment up early next week!