========================
part eight:
CORDELIA TO THE RESCUE (IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT)
========================
8:32 PM the same day; It took longer than Buffy would
have liked, but they finally made it out of the cemetery
and back to the area outside The Bronze...
Buffy looked around and spotted a bench outside a barber shop not too far down the street. "I'm going to lay her down over there." Buffy pointed out the bench. "Can you two go inside and call for an ambulance to come?" Buffy asked Amy and Gwen, actually needing a few moments alone to catch her breath.
"Sure." Gwen agreed.
"Of course." Amy echoed.
"Great. I'll wait over there with her." Buffy said needlessly, giving Amy a look like she wished none of this had had to happen.
"We'll come over and join you once we make the call. Right Amy?" Gwen said, reading the interaction between them.
"Right." Amy said, letting Gwen lead her into the dance club by the hand. [Why does she keep doing that?] Amy questioned to herself.
They were let in again after paying the cover charge. "So, where's the pay phone at?" Gwen asked, seemingly feeling a little nervous for some reason.
"This way." Amy got her bearings and led Gwen over to the phone. An interested pair of eyes catching sight of them as they skirted the outside of the room in search of the phone, noting their clasped hands.
Gwen leaned against the wall and waited as Amy made the call and gave the paramedics directions to where Buffy was waiting for them with her charge.
After Amy hung up the phone, Gwen had an idea. "We should get something to drink for her." She pointed out.
"Okay." Amy said easily. "The bar's over that way."
"Um, how about the soda machine?" Gwen countered, indicating the machine she'd spotted before.
"Oh, yeah. O.k.." Amy agreed.
As Gwen was getting the drinks, a hand grabbed Amy's shoulder and whirled her around.
"Hey!" Cordelia said. A boy, her boyfriend probably, standing off to the side behind her. "What do you think you're doing Amy?"
"Cordelia?" Amy was understandably confused.
"I thought Buffy was your girlfriend. She's a friend of mine you know. Does she know you're hanging out with this skank over here? Or maybe I should tell her!" The 'queen of the school' was obviously not pleased.
"Hey! I'm not a skank!" Gwen was quick to challenge. "And look who's talking anyway!" She eyed Cordilia's rather revealing outfit.
"What did you say?!" Cordelia glared at her. "Who's the one sleazing around with a girl who's already spoken for? And what's wrong with the way I dress anyway? Not everyone's into that whole 'leather-bound butch' scene, you know? Some of us actually like to look attractive?" She pointed out.
Gwen's eyes were positively glacial by this point and Amy could tell she was having trouble keeping her temper by the slight flickering she could just catch coming of her body.
"Cordelia, no. You've got the wrong idea, o.k.? No one's cheating on Buffy. Gwen's just a friend of hers." She was hastily explaining, willing Gwen to calm down. "We found a girl who'd been attacked outside the club, and Buffy's staying with her while we called the paramedics."
That seemed to get Cordelia's attention. She looked at Amy and Gwen skeptically. "Then what's with the hand holing? And the buying Cokes?" She questioned, still not entirely convinced.
"Is it a crime to hold a friend's hand now?" Gwen put in. "Mind your own business."
"If Buffy's her friend, then it's her business." The boyfriend put in supportively, addressing Gwen. "Wouldn't you look out for your friends?"
"Thanks Owen." Cordelia smiled over to her boyfriend in appreciation. "Alright, fine!" Cordilia said, looking back at Amy. "But we're going outside with you. If a girl really has been attacked, it's better to have more people to help her, right?" She challenged Amy, still not quite sure she believed their excuses and wanting to have Buffy confirm the wild story. One thing Cordilia couldn't stand was when someone was trying to do damage to one of her friends. And even though she'd only known Buffy Summers a day, in her book it still qualified and she was honor bound to stick up for her when she wasn't around.
"Fine!" Gwen said, stalking off and leaving the other three to follow her.
"You really shouldn't get her mad like that." Amy said in warning to Cordelia, having a little worry in her mind about what Gwen could do unintentionally if she let her temper get the better of her, and Cordelia had really seemed to get to her somehow.
"Why not? Is she some kind of martial arts chick or something?" Cordelia asked, not really buying that. She was pretty sure she could hold her own with Leather Barbi if she had to.
"Or something." Amy said.
Cordelia just shook her head and followed along. "If you say so." She said dubiously.
========================
8:43 PM; outside The Bronze...
Buffy was pacing slowly back and forth, keeping one eye on her charge to make sure she was still breathing and the other she used to keep a look out for any possible trouble. She'd taken off her coat and used it for a make-shift pillow for the girl's head. She'd heard somewhere that it was good to keep a person's head elevated if they'd been injured.
A chill ran through her and she looked around urgently, expecting to see vampires or some other threat. All she saw was Amy and Gwen approaching her from the club along with two other people. Was that Cordelia? [Why would they set me off like this?] Buffy questioned herself. Still looking around for something else it could be but finding nothing.
When they were in short distance of her, she focused her senses on them. Especially the boy that she hadn't met before.... [Nothing.] Buffy assessed. "It's not them." She spoke under her breath as she cast her gaze about again, looking everywhere for the possible threat. [There!] She saw a shadow move in an alleyway a ways off. Her senses told her not to ignore it.
"Hey Buffy." Amy greeted, coming up to her girlfriend and making to hug her.
"No." Buffy said, motioning for her to stay back. "There's something..."
"See, I knew they were full of it." Cordelia said to Owen, seeing Buffy seemingly brush Amy off.
"Buffy... what's..." Amy started.
"Gwen, incoming!" Buffy shouted as three six foot tall demons, pale white skin, sharp teeth, pointed ears, clad in ornate black full body armor, and sporting some very violent looking dispositions, charged at them from different directions.
Gwen, who had still been quietly fuming over what Cordelia had said to her, instantly perked up and looked around. "Oh, shit." She said.
The demons faced them, each having drawn a long sword and regarding Gwen wearily.
"Deceiver!" The one in the middle shouted in a deep booming voice. "Your death is at hand" He bared his teeth and raised his blade, his fellow demons circling around to flank Gwen and her friends.
The demons were seemingly unconcerned with anyone but Gwen, but they seemed intent on cutting through anyone in their way to get to her. It was instant chaos. Buffy blocked one demon from bringing his blade down on Gwen from behind, while Gwen shot a bolt of electricity at another demon, knocking him to the ground and taking him out of the fight.
"Owen!" Cordelia cried, tackling her boyfriend to the ground just in time to save him from getting cut in half by the third demon who was charging through them to get at the electricity thrower on the other side of them. He stepped over the couple without a second thought and was about to cut at Gwen with a sweeping strike of his blade.
"Die!" He shouted. Gwen turned, but not in time, as the blade impacted not her but Amy in the stomach, sending them both flying into the glass window front of the barbershop behind them, thankfully missing the unconscious girl laying on the bench. Gwen taking the brunt of the impact.
By that point, Buffy had gotten the sword away from the leader of the demons and slain him with it. Seeing what the remaining demon had done, a cold fury took her and she cried in rage as she took the other demon's head off, him not even having time to mount a credible defense for himself.
Buffy pivoted on her feet in a succinct motion, looking around for the third demon. Seeing him laying smoking on the ground a few yards away, she dropped the sword carelessly and scrambled into the barbershop after Amy and Gwen.
"Buffy? Buffy?!" Buffy heard Cordelia's panicked voice call from behind her.
"What happened?!" Owen's voice questioned from behind his girlfriend.
Buffy was helping Amy to her feet. "Are you o.k.?" Buffy asked solicitously.
"Of course I am." Amy said, brushing off the glass and looking down at Gwen. "I'm invulnerable, remember?" She said with tears in her eyes.
Buffy looked at Amy and then kneeled down next to Gwen, taking in just how bad it was as some tears came to her eyes as well. Owen and Cordelia came up behind them, looking down at Gwen laying on the ground, her back hunched as she lay on her side.
"Oh, God." Cordelia said soberly, feeling dizzy and out of it.
"Is she going to be o.k.?" Owen asked, kneeling down beside Buffy and making to check Gwen's pulse.
"No!" Buffy urgently rebuked him, grabbing his arm before he could do what he intended. "You can't touch her." She said sadly.
"Why not?" Cordelia said.
"Because he'd die." Buffy said, turning to look at Cordelia meaningfully. "Amy, you have to do it."
Amy was still a bit in shock and staring mutely down at Gwen, waiting for Buffy to do something. "Me?" Amy said, her voice having a certain mouse like quality at the moment.
"You're the only one who can help her." Buffy said beseechingly.
Amy didn't understand, but she knelt down and started inspecting Gwen for damage, knowing she had to help if she could. She was alive at least, she could tell that much. They heard a siren coming in the distance and Amy breathed a sigh of relief as Gwen opened her eyes and groaned. "What hit me." She said in a small voice, and Buffy laughed with relief.
"She's o.k.!" Amy exclaimed happily, looking up at Buffy, tears clouding both their vision.
"Yeah, she's o.k." Buffy said, her voice breaking. "We've got to get her out of here." She said quietly as the ambulance pulled up, looking at Amy with a little desperation in her eyes.
"Huh? But... Shouldn't we get her to a hospital? ...And why am I the only one who gets to touch her anyway?" Amy finally asked.
"I'd like to know that too." Owen echoed.
"Listen, no time for big explanations here, but if someone without that bracelet of yours touches her, they get electrocuted and die. If those paramedics try to treat her, they're dead." She spoke grimly. "Cordelia, can you and Owen go and keep the paramedics away, show them where the girl is on the bench over there. She needs their help." Buffy pointed her out a few yards away.
Cordelia looked over at the girl on the bench and her eyes softened. "You can count on us." She said, her and Owen turning to go do as they were told.
"Buffy..." Amy protested, a lot of things suddenly making more sense to her.
"Amy, we don't have a choice." Buffy said.
"She's right, Amy." Gwen said in a gravely voice. "It'll be okay. I heal quick... and think I can stumble at least, if I can lean on you?" Gwen asked in with uncommon vulnerability.
Amy blinked. "Sure." She said self-consciously, moving to help Gwen to her feet.
"I think there's a back door through there." Buffy pointed to the darkened back of the shop, her night vision much better than the average human. "I'll meet you out back as soon as I can, I've got to make sure that other demon doesn't get up. Will you two be o.k. until then?"
Amy nodded yes.
"We'll be fine Anne girl, don' you worry about us." Gwen said, giving Amy an affectionate yet very tired look.
"Right." Buffy smiled. [Looks like Amy's got a friend for life now.] She assessed, accurately reading just how much Amy had come to matter to Gwen now. Turning and heading towards the hapless paramedics, who actually seemed to be taking the dead demons in something at least approaching stride, Buffy thought about her life now. [Ah, the blessings of jaded city medical workers.] She thought as she eyed the smoking demon who was, as she'd feared, starting to shakily get up.
She strolled past Cordelia, Owen, and the paramedics who where getting the injured girl onto a stretcher. Picking up a discarded broadsword along the way, she marched right over to the fallen demon and unceremoniously lopped his head off. All concerned staring with mouths in various stages of hanging open at the beheaded head in question rolled for several feet before coming a rest. Buffy dropped the sword and brushed off her hands, affecting a nonchalant attitude as she went on rejoining the others. "The cockroaches in this town are getting out of control these days. I tell ya." She spoke. "Shouldn't you two be getting your patient on the way to the hospital now? It's not a good night to be hanging about out on the street after all." She directed this to the paramedics.
"Oh, right." One of them said dumbly, looking over to his partner who quickly nodded her agreement.
"I need to get a new job." Buffy heard one of them say as they loaded the girl into the back and got her set in.
"I need to get a new mailing address." The female of the two said back.
Buffy broke out in a sort of madcap laughter, feeling just about at the end of her rope by now, like she was running on fumes. She shook it off though. She had a job to do after all. Miles to go and all that.
"You two should head home now. You have a car?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah. I do." Cordelia spoke up, still trying to process all of this. Owen by this point had seeming lost his speaking ability and was just sticking by Cordelia and following her lead.
"I'll walk you there." Buffy said, looking longingly back into the barbershop.
Cordelia looked where Buffy was looking, and though she felt like kicking herself for offering it after everything they'd just been through, she did it anyway. "You three want a ride somewhere?" She asked.
Buffy looked back at Cordelia, blindsided by the offer. Honestly not having seen that coming, she broke out into a grin, the relief clear on her face. "Sure." She said, heaving a sigh, looking over at Cordelia with renewed respect. "Thank you." She said with meaning.
"Just make sure spark plug girl back there doesn't blow up my car while we're in it." Cordelia said, walking past Buffy towards the back of the barber shop. "Well? Are you coming or not?" She asked impatiently.
"Oh. Yeah! Right behind you." Buffy hurried to catch up. Owen trailing behind, strangely glad to see he wasn't the only one Cordelia had that effect on. Somehow the fact that someone who went around beheading things, seemingly without so much as blinking, could be ordered about just like she did to him sometimes was of great comfort to him. It also made this Buffy person seem a lot less terrifying.
========================
to be continued in part nine...
GOODNIGHT KISSES AND LIFE SAVER CANDY
see you next time!