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Buffy woke up the morning after Xander and Anya’s wedding with a decided feeling of satisfaction and an extra presence in her bed. She glanced at the clock - it was late. Barely still morning. She looked at Spike’s tousled head, still asleep and buried deep under the covers.
Last night…. had been different. More. Something had broken between them, for the better. And now….
But before she could take that thought any further, her phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Buffy?” Angel, sounding strained and in a hurry. “Have you seen Cordelia?”
Buffy frowned, puzzled. “You mean since last night at the wedding? No. Why?”
Click. Angel had hung up without answering.
“Wuzzat?” Spike mumbled sleepily.
“That was the sound of someone about to get their ass kicked,” Buffy grumbled, punching furiously at the speed dial number for Angel Investigations.
There was an answer after barely even one ring. “Cordelia?” said Wesley’s voice.
“No,” Buffy said, even more puzzled now. “What’s going on? Angel called here asking if I’d seen Cordy and then hung up on me. Did something happen to her?”
“Ah,” Wesley said, sounding reproachful. Buffy could hear Connor crying in the background. “It seems Cordy has gone missing. We’re fairly certain she left of her own accord, though, so that is something. We were hoping maybe she went to Sunnydale for something, but that does not seem to be the case.”
“I don’t know for sure,” Buffy said. “I slept in late. I’ll ask around, see if any of the others know anything. Oh, and Wes?”
“Yes?”
“Tell Angel that if he ever hangs up on me again, he’s a dead vampire.” She hung up without waiting for a response.
“What’s going on?” Spike asked, more alert now.
“Cordy’s missing,” Buffy told him, throwing back the covers and gathering clothes. “Get dressed. Try...not to look like you spent the night here,” she added, not quite meeting his eye.
Spike snorted. He was pretty sure everyone in the household knew he’d spent the night, and it wasn’t like he kept a spare set of clothes lying around. Still, he obeyed, getting up and sliding into his clothes.
Once dressed, Buffy went out into the hall and nearly collided with Tara who was about to head downstairs herself, looking altogether more composed than Buffy. “Hey, Tara. Have you been up for a while?”
“Uh, a little while,” Tara admitted. “What’s going on?”
“Have you heard from or seen Cordelia since last night? Wesley just told me she’s gone missing.” Buffy didn’t mention the thing with Angel, though she was still smarting a little over it.
Tara’s face fell and she looked worried. “M-missing? No, I haven’t heard from her. W-was she t-taken or…?”
“I don’t know,” Buffy said. “Wes said she appears to have left of her own accord, but they sounded pretty frantic over there, so I’m guessing she didn’t go on an unexpected trip to the mall.” She could hear laughter from downstairs. “Can you go talk to the others? See if they noticed anything peculiar with her or if she said anything out of the ordinary? I’m going to call Giles.”
Tara nodded agreement and was about to go downstairs when Spike came out of Buffy’s bedroom, still looking fairly rumpled. Buffy blushed. “Spike was just here to, um….”
Tara struggled to suppress a smile; Cordelia might be in grave peril, now was definitely not the time to tease Buffy about Spike. “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me,” she said. “I’ll go talk to the others.”
“Thank you,” Buffy called after her.
Tara headed downstairs and into the kitchen where Willow and Dawnie were making brunch. “Hey,” Willow greeted her, then frowned. Something must have shown on Tara’s face. “What’s wrong?”
“Cordelia’s missing,” Tara said. “It sounds like she made it to Los Angeles okay but then disappeared sometime between then and when everyone got up this morning. Did you guys see her acting oddly or anything last night?”
Willow and Dawnie exchanged looks. “No, she was acting perfectly normal,” Willow said.
“Normal for Cordy, anyway,” Dawnie agreed.
Spike clattered down the stairs. “Oi, get ready to leave as soon as possible. We’re taking a field trip to L.A.”
“I’ll call Jonathan and Andrew,” Dawnie said, darting for the kitchen phone.
“Do you think we’ll need them?” Willow asked. “Giles is taking Xander and Anya to the airport, so we’ve only got one car, and it’s Xander’s. It won’t hold all of us.”
“They’ll still want to know,” Dawnie argued. “Especially Jonathan.”
Upstairs, Buffy had just relayed the news to Giles. “I think we’re going to go down there and see if we can help at all.”
“Yes, of course,” he agreed instantly. “I will, uh, let Xander know what is going on. I hate to back out of taking them to the airport, but they should be able to take a cab.”
“Good idea,” Buffy said. “Can you come over right away?”
“Yes, I will be there as soon as I’m off the phone with Xander.”
“Okay. See you soon.”
Buffy hurried downstairs. “Guys, Giles is coming over ASAP. Be ready to leave once he gets here.”
Dawn, still on the phone with Jonathan, said into the receiver, “Oh, never mind. We’ve got two cars now. I think we can pick you up on the way.”
“Good,” Jonathan said, relieved. He wanted to help Cordelia in any way he could, even if it wasn’t much. “Andrew’s here with me, so we’ll both be ready when you guys get here.”
“Jonathan,” Andrew hissed for the fifteenth time in two minutes. “Tell me what’s going onnnnnn.”
Jonathan covered the mouthpiece. “Will you hold on just a minute?” He listed to what Dawn had to say. “What? No! He didn’t want to stay by himself at his aunt’s house last night. Jeez, Dawn.” He listened to her speak for another moment, muttered begrudging assent, and hung up. “Get dressed,” he told Andrew. “We’re going to L.A. Cordelia’s missing and we need to help find her.”
Andrew sprang to his feet and changed swiftly from his pyjamas to regular clothes he had brought along in a backpack. He sloppily rolled his sleeping bag into something resembling a bundle.
“A cab?” Xander repeated in disbelief when he heard the news. “Cordy is missing and you want us to still go on our honeymoon? You’re joking, right?”
“I still want us to go on our honeymoon, too,” Anya protested.
“Anya is right,” Giles said. She was close enough to the phone that he could hear her speaking in the background. “Listen, I have to go. Your car is already at Buffy’s, yes? We’ll keep you posted as we can.”
“No,” Xander said. “Anya, honey, I want to go on our honeymoon too but it’s not going to be fun if we’re both distracted with worry - and don’t tell me you won’t be because I know you.”
Anya sighed. “Well, maybe a little. But only because Giles being gone until Cordy is found means that the Magic Box won’t be open and we’ll be losing even more money.”
“And for those of you who don’t speak Anyaese,” Xander said into the phone, “that means she’s very worried about her friend.”
Giles almost chuckled - not quite, but it was a comfort that this, at least, was no different than normal. “I will pick you up on the way to Buffy’s. Be ready to go in ten.”
“Aye aye,” Xander said and hung up.
Not twenty minutes later, everyone was gathered at Buffy’s house and ready to storm Los Angeles. Whatever thing or being had chosen to mess with Cordelia Chase would soon know the wrath of her friends.
What they didn’t realise at that time was that the person who had messed with Cordelia Chase was Cordelia herself.