Xander Harris woke up slowly, groaning as the pain hit his conscious mind.
He was blinded momentarily, as his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight steaming through the large window. As he scanned the surroundings, the 17-year-old kid saw it was a nice-looking hospital room with a great deal of cards, flowers and 'Get Well Soon' balloons. He briefly wondered if he was in the wrong room, because no way in hell could his parents' laughable insurance cover all this.
Through the pain, Xander saw that his left arm was covered in a white cast from his elbow to the wrist. He was about to start reading the many messages that covered the cast, but then he noticed something odd.
On the chair next to his bed, was a woman's purse. Not Buffy or Willow's, either. No, the small black Prada purse could belong to only one other girl that he knew.
"Cordelia?" he called out weakly. He called out again, a little louder the next time, and that time he was answered.
A muffled, "Xander?!" was called from behind the closed bathroom door. Less than a minute later, a flush was heard and Cordelia Chase came out. She looked, as she always did to him, like a million bucks. But what surprised the boy was the huge smile she got on her face, when she saw him awake.
"Oh thank God!" the teenage girl said happily, before gently hugging him. "You gave me quite a scare…" Her voice wavered a little. "I hate it when you do that!"
She was expecting a joke or something from him in reply, but that was not what she got. No sir, not in any way, shape or form.
Because a completely confused look appeared on Xander' face. "Ah, what's going on? Am I suddenly in Bizzaro World or something?" He indicated the many flowers and other items. "All that stuff, and Cordelia Chase is acting like she cares about me?"
A genuine look of pain crossed her face. "You know I do!"
"Do I?" the male teenager asked, surprised with just a tad of bitterness now that he was fully alert. "Call me a cynic here, but I don't think a guy you just had a passing fling with would ordinarily rate a personal visit like this. I mean," Xander mimicked her words from a few days ago. "We're not working out."
Cordy closed her eyes briefly, as she remembered saying those very words to him on their last date as a couple. "Look, Xander…"
"No, no, no," Harris said, interrupting her. "I've had everyone from the football team to the Prom committee making fun of me for days, because of your very public dumping ceremony at the Bronze. It got so bad that believe it or not, I almost did a witchy love spell to try and get my revenge on you!"
"What?" Cordelia couldn't believe it.
"Well, what did you expect, that I'd just lie down and take it after what you did? Luckily I came to my senses, just before I tried to blackmail Amy. Still, I should have done something to end the abuse...but getting back on topic, some people did that crap to me right in front of your face...and now I'm supposed to buy your little "I'm sorry" act here?"
Fighting back tears Cordy told him, "Xander, I couldn't-"
"Couldn't what?" Xander demanded. "Couldn't risk your social position? Well, that's not surprising of course, given what I know you're really like now, but funny thing - I don't recall Devon or any of your other boyfriends getting this sort of treatment, when you dumped them. Oh, never mind, this is pointless! Moving onto your unexpected presence here - this is all about what landed me in the hospital, isn't it?"
He winced, as a sharp pain forced him to calm down. "The varsity cheerleader's bus goes out of control and rams a gas station, causing it to catch on fire. And lo and behold, who jumps into help? The king of losers, Xander Harris."
"You saved me, you saved everyone," Ms. Chase whispered, just loud enough to hear her.
"I'll take your word for it, since my memories of it all are a tad cloudy right now," the young man told her with a shrug. "But look Cordy, you don't owe me anything, I was just doing my job. Staking a vamp or getting people out of a burning bus, it's all just part of the job description." He snorted. "And my guess is Snyder and his entourage are already finding away to pin the blame for it all on me..."
"No!" Cordy exclaimed. "It's all over the news…Xander, KTLA wants to interview you, on account of a news crew caught the entire thing." Sitting in the chair next to him she continued, "You're like some superhero legend in school, right now. What the hell, Harmony and the others think you're grade A dating material-"
"Oh, so that's it?!" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow, considering the information. "I'm the new flavor of the week, so you want to get together with me before Harmony does?"
Cordelia just looked at him for a few moments, her face showing the horrible pain his accusations were causing. She got up and closed the door to the hallway, before she sat back down at his side. "Xander…" the former May Queen started. "Whatever else you think of me, please don't think I don't care deeply about you-"
Scorn filled the injured boy's face. "And why, pray tell, would I ever think that? Because let's face it, I've seen how much you care!" He looked at her bare throat. "That necklace I gave you on Valentine's Day? Obviously doesn't pass the coolness factor test. You should melt it down, and sell it as scrap metal fillings or something. Because that'd be a better fate than the way I was added to the Cordelia Chase castoff collection-"
"Hey, do you think letting you go was easy for me!?!" the brunette girl shouted back at him. Ignoring his surprised face she kept going, "Xander, the only thing I am is popular! All my life, I've had to toe the line about what I could do or say in public. You know that my parents hate you, and Harmony was acting like she could smell my blood in the water. Am I a weak coward for not standing up and saying that you were my boyfriend, no matter what the hell they thought…well, yes!"
Cordy looked him right in the eyes now. "But say for the sake of argument I'd told them all to go screw themselves...what would I have had then, hmm? I would have been the maybe-girlfriend of a guy who would only be with me, when he wasn't almost getting himself killed! I know for a fact that if you had to choose between going on a date with me, and going out on patrol with Buffy, that you would pick her-"
"You can NOT be serious!" Xander yelled back. "It's not like I was ditching you to go drinking with the Buffster! I was saving people's lives!"
"Well, how about saving ME once in a while!?" Cordy roared back, her face now very close to his. "Do you have any idea how it felt to see you constantly running off with two other girls? One of which you used to have wet dreams about, and maybe still do!?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Harris told her. "But funny thing, I don't have as much experience in having a girlfriend as you do! I don't know all the do's and don'ts here. But with Willow and Buffy, we were either researching or slaying…not making out in the stacks!"
After those words, they just stared each other down for a few moments, neither's anger cooling very much. But as with their history…
They were together in a heartbeat.
Their kisses were becoming deeper and more erotic, as each moment passed. "Oh my God, I've missed you..." Cordelia said affectionately, as she came up for air.
"Same here," Xander said, sighing as she bent back down and started to work on his neck. "Cor, I am soo going to get a hickey if you keep that up-"
"That's the plan!" she told him in a throaty voice, as her hand moved up his…
"Ahem."
Cordelia almost jumped back in surprise. "Daddy? What are you doing here?"
Charles Chase adjusted his tie, as he fully came into the room. "I take it you two have made up?"
Xander was slightly surprised at how Cordelia seemed to shrink away at her father's gaze. (Maybe he intimidates her more than I thought.) "Ah, well sir, we have some things to work on, but I guess you can never say never with us." Out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw Cordelia get a worried look.
"Well, I sincerely hope you two can work through whatever your issues are," Mr. Chase said, getting an astonished look from Cordelia. "Because I think you would be an excellent match for my youngest daughter, Xander Harris."
Casually ignoring the amazed look on Xander's face, Charles turned to his offspring. "Cordelia, once he's discharged, you should bring him around to the country club; a few of our friends have said they'd love to meet this brave young man."
"I'll do that," the female teenager said, stunned, as her father said his goodbyes and left the room, closing the door behind him. Cordy then had to force herself from looking back at the door. "He...he…" she stuttered. "He thought you were a gold-digger…but now he wants us together?"
"This is just-" Xander started to say, but Cordy cut him off.
"Did you mean what you said?" she asked him softly. "Never say never?"
Xander didn't want to show much emotion as he spoke, but he failed miserably in that department. "Cordy, look, it hurt a HELL of a lot when you cared more about what Harmony thought, than what we had. But..." he said looking down, "...the truth is, I need to know that this isn't because of how the in-crowd likes me now. I mean, would you dump me again if my status changed back-?"
"NO!" she said quickly. "Xander, I love you. And I need you. I didn't understand how much, until…" Cordy started to tear up again. "It cut me up so much inside, to see everyone make fun of you. I…I know I have to stop letting them control me. But it's all I've ever known, at least until I had you! Please, give me one more chance?"
Harris was silent for a moment, but then he slowly raised his right hand to intertwine with hers. "It's not going to be easy, I can tell ya that right now for nothing," he told her with a weak smile. "We both have things we gotta work on…but I suppose, we can work on them together..."
Tears flowing freely now, Cordelia hugged him as tight as his injuries would allow. "Thank you, Xander..." she whispered into his ear. "And I promise that you won't ever regret it."
"Look - are you sure you want to go through all that again, Xander?"
"Yeah Wills, I am," Xander told his best friend. "I hate to admit it, but she was definitely right about a few things. I did push her off to the side far too much, when it comes to the Slayer stuff."
"I don't get that," Willow said in confusion, from her spot next to Buffy. "I mean, Oz isn't always here with us, but he doesn't think I ignore him-"
"Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't," Xander said. "But your boyfriend has his band, and real friends he can hang with outside of the Scooby gang. I don't think Cordy has that. I sure as hell don't..."
"Uh, I hate to be the bad guy here Xander," Buffy spoke up. "But this IS Cordelia Chase we're talking about. It's not going to be easy for her to admit her feelings to her adoring public. I remember how she was, before you two first went public; she didn't want anyone to know, remember?"
"I know, Buff," Xander said as he moved closer. "She's already done one thing, though."
"Oh, what?" Buffy asked.
Xander showed them his cast around his arm. In large blue lettering, in full view for everyone to see, was the message. "I love you. -Cordelia" And a bright red lipstick kiss sat right next to the cheerleader's name.
"Aww, how cute!" Willow smiled without thinking, before covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh, did I say that out loud?"
Buffy ignored her. "It's a start, yeah. But Xander…"
Xander interrupted her, "But I've made up my mind. We're officially back together, and I'm afraid that's all there is to it."
The high school senior known as Harmony Kendall looked on in disgust, as the Homecoming King and Queen danced their first dance together.
Cordelia, dancing with Xander freaking Harris!? Granted, Harmony herself had been among his fans after that accident back in February. But his fifteen minutes of popularity should have been over, a LONG time ago! However, that wasn't what had happened. And compared to last year, the difference in the popular crowd was like night and day.
Thanks to whatever dorky mind control thing Harris had done on her former best friend, the natural pecking order had been destroyed. The high school cliques were, somehow, all equal now. When a freshman 'junior varsity' cheerleader had the audacity to talk back to HER…well, Harmony had gotten completely fed up.
She had attempted to take over the group from Queen C, trying to maintain the old status quo, but not one of those airheads had taken her side. Harmony had then tried to discredit Xander and Cordy by spreading a rumor that he had given her a healthy dose of the clap -but unfortunately, it hadn't taken. And she'd just barely avoided damage to her own reputation, when the vengeful Ms. Chase had threatened to tell details to the school newspaper about one of her past sexual indiscretions...
As she watched Harris and his date rejoin the group comprised of the Cordettes and Buffy's brigade of losers, Harmony wondered what the blonde freak and that dark-haired slut with her had been thinking, when they'd looked in the mirror tonight before coming here. (What's the other one's name anyway, Faye? Fido? Whatever, they must have rolled around on the lawn with their boyfriends or something, before coming inside. Typical!)
She then shook her head, at the latest news about Xander and Cordy that she had heard. That Mr. and Mrs. Chase were giving them a two-month trip all over Europe, as a graduation gift. (Is there no justice as well as fashion sense left in this world?)
"Is something wrong?" her date asked, as he returned with two glasses of punch.
"Just that sickening display," Harm sneered in answer, as she took her glass.
Her date put his arm around her shoulder. "You shouldn't be bummed out about them, sweetheart," he told her. "You're an intelligent and beautiful woman, and you outshine them all..."
Harmony beamed at him. "Well, of course I do!" She really liked her new college boyfriend, for he was obviously ten times better quality material than Harris.
The man in question, Parker Abrams, asked, "Hey, you know what? Now that you've graced the peasants with your presence, would you like to come to a real party over on campus? If not, that's okay. After all, I was gonna call my father - he's been sick lately..."
"No, no! I'd love to come. Let's go, let's go!" Harmony replied gleefully, as they left the dance unnoticed. Not knowing that the ultimate player in this game would do unto her, what he'd done to so many other college girls in the morning...
Hmm, on second thoughts, maybe there WAS some justice and fashion sense left in this world at that.