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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
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1,843
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1/1
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Unlikely Friends

Summary:

RATING: FRT/PG
CLASSIFICATION: Cordelia/Gwen friendship
SUMMARY: Cordelia gets a new assignment from The Powers That Be.
SPOILERS: Set post-"Not Fade Away."
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, I don't own it. Joss Whedon, Kazui Sandollar, The WB, UPN, et. al. most likely do.
FEEDBACK: Please send it offlist and let me know it's feedback; I do rapid delete on my account due to a lot of spam
AUTHORS NOTES: I took the second request of Cordelia & Gwen. I briefly touched on the four things requested, though my interpretation of "trouble w/men" is probably not what was expected.
ASSIGNMENT ANSWERED: Used the lyrics sent to me by Ligeia for round one of btvs_lyrics.
FICATHON ANSWERED: The Friendship Ficathon. My assignment:
Name/LJname: Silvertedy
Request: Darla, Faith, Lilah
Alternate request: Cordelia and Gwen
4 elements you'd like to see: trouble w/men, road trip, shoe shopping, junk food 2 things you do NOT want to see in your story: character death, evil Darla
Submitted through the 'YG deleted' All-About-Cordy mailing list. Please join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AllAboutCordy

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

 

 

Unlikely Friends
by Ragna
(writinggoddess@aol.com)

 

She knew how to reach them if she needed to, and she wasn't sure if she'd need to, to be honest. The Powers That Be were pretty explicit in their request from her, and they'd given her her old body back, so she wasn't really complaining.

However...that didn't mean she wasn't upset about the abrupt way they'd finagled things. No, Cordelia was a little sick of simply being told to drop what she was doing and go. She wasn't one for taking orders even after all those years and experiences.

"We just run through our lives," she muttered to herself, "with so little control that it's not funny."

And with that mini-mantra running through her head, she turned down the alley where she'd been deposited, looking for the dark haired girl she remembered had a deadly touch:

Gwen Raiden.

***

"It's getting so loud!" Gwen screamed, covering up her ears. There was work to do, getting the ragtag team of demon hunters to the screeching Banshee-like demon being the first and foremost on the list, but it was impossible with the thing's death shriek stunning everyone into insensibility.

She pushed the heel of her gloved hands tighter down on her ears and closed her eyes. She didn't need to look at the shrieking demon to know where it was, and the wind coming from it's bellowing mouth was kicking up things in the alley that she didn't want to think about.

As she trudged forward, she idly wondered how she'd gone from successful thief to demon hunter. It wasn't that hard to figure out that Angel was the key, but even a push from one of the few good vampires she knew wasn't enough.

No, she was doing this, she realized as she neared closer and closer to the demon, because it was the right thing to do.

And then everything stopped. The shrieking, the wind....it was all gone, leaving only the rancid smell associated with most alleyways.

"What the hell happened?" one of the men in her group asked, shaking his head.

Gwen pulled her hands away from her ears, lowering them but lifting her shoulders up in a small shrug. "Don't know," she said, looking around until her eyes landed on the semi-familiar face.

"We need to go on a trip," Cordelia said quietly.

"But the demon..."

Cordelia shook her head. "It's gone, don't worry. Just...come on."

It was Gwen's turn to shake her head. "No. I have a job here."

"I have a job, too," Cordelia said, stepping towards Gwen until they were almost nose-to-nose. "We need to go get someone to help you. And we need to go now."

***

Gwen had a car. In the burnt out shell that had been downtown Los Angeles, that was a strange sight. But the demon fighting crews had cleaned roadways for the vans they used to transport demon hunters around. It was just...

Vans were a normal sight. Drop-tops were not.

Cordelia sat in the passenger seat. "Nice."

"I remembered the underground parking at Wolfram & Hart. Hoped it survived the destruction, you know? This was the only running car left. Took me a while to try and find the keys, but then I just gave up and hotwired it." She hopped in and pulled out a key. "Though I did get a key, eventually."

"Turning into a car thief?"

"No, I gave up the life of crime." She shrugged. "Figured Angel ran the firm last, he wouldn't mind if I took a car."

Cordelia nodded. "He always did have a thing for black convertibles."

"Where to?"

"South. San Diego."

***
"Why are you here?" Gwen asked as they left the decimated part of Los Angeles.

"To help you. It's my job."

"When did I merit mystical help?"

"You picked up the good fight, you and the others." She nodded to a small outlet. "I'm hungry. Pull in."

"I thought you wouldn't be hungry."

"Why not?"

"You're mystical and all."

"It may be a miracle I came back, but I'm human. I need food." She looked at Gwen. "Hunting for a miracle or something?"

"Not looking for a miracle, just a reason to believe."

"Well, I believe we need some junk food."

***

After they spent ten minutes gathering sodas, bottled Starbucks drinks and some chips to tide them over for a bit, Cordelia looked down at Gwen's outfit and shook her head. "You can't go dressed like that."

"Like what?" Gwen asked, a challenging note in her voice.

"Like you've just left World War Three," Cordelia said patiently.

Gwen glanced at her shoes first, covered in the slime and grime of the alleyway, and worked her way up. "I guess I do look like crap."

Cordelia smiled. "Shoes first, and then clothes."

They entered the shoe store at the little strip mall. Cordelia asked Gwen her size, then picked out box after box of shoes. "Then maybe we don't need this," she muttered every once in a while.

"Hold on," Gwen said. She pulled her slim wallet out of her back pocket. "I forgot to get more money before we left."

"I'd been meaning to ask where you had the money in the first place," Cordelia asked, setting the shoes down and watching her count the bills, which went smaller and smaller in denomination as Gwen flipped through them.

"My place wasn't destroyed, and I keep most of my money in a safe. Right now, it's feeding my group and getting us some of the supplies we need."

"How much do you have now?"

"Not much here. About $50 left, plus I stashed $20 for gas."

"Then we'll go cheap." She handed Gwen a pair of black leather combat-type boots. "For work. Your are trashed." Then she knelt down and looked through the boxes, pulling out a pair of black heels. "And for later."

"Where would I wear heels to, Cordelia? Dancing with a demon or something?"

"For this job I have to do. We have to get help, right? You have to look the part."

"Just what are we doing?"

"We're getting Gunn."

Gwen looked just a little shocked. "I thought he was dead."

"He's in a hospital in San Diego. He doesn't know who he is." She handed Gwen the heels. "You going to take these or what?"

"I'm willing to do anything." She took the heels and tried them on, finding they were a perfect fit.

***

An hour later they were back on the road. Gwen wore all black: black long sleeved blouse, black slacks, black heels. She looked professional and dignified.

"Why's Gunn so important to this, anyway?"

"His old group, the ones helping you out? They want to do things their way. It's going to cause problems. If Gunn's there, things will work themselves out and no one will get hurt."

"I didn't realize those guys worked with Gunn."

"A long time ago." Cordelia pulled a chip out of the bag. "I've never been the praying kind, but I'm praying all the knowledge I got crammed into my head works. Angel..."

"You liked him."

"Yeah." Cordelia shook her head. "Anyway, Angel wanted to win. He wanted to save the world. Gunn's important for that. He was the only one-hundred percent mortal at that big fight, and he lived. Someone...something...he was saved because of what's going on now."

"Why?"

"He's special."

"I could have told you that."

Cordelia smiled and looked at the road signs. "We've got about three or four hours to go..."

***

They talked. It had been so long since Gwen had let her guard down that while her mind screamed that this much talking to another person was unnatural, it felt all right. It felt good to have...a friend.

She may not have known Cordelia long, but it seemed as though there were so many similarities and things that clicked that it was okay to forget they'd only really met a few hours ago.

As she pulled into the hospital parking lot a few hours later, she felt nervous, but the funny story Cordelia had told her about an ex-boyfriend of hers had her laughing lightly. Looking up at the hospital, however, killed the laughter in it's tracks.

"It'll be okay," Cordelia said. "The hospital knows who he is; Connor made sure of it when he got him here. All I need you to do is touch his head with your hand, without your glove."

"It'll kill him!" Gwen said.

Cordelia shook her head. "Not this time. I can almost guarantee."

Gwen raised an eyebrow but said nothing except, "Aren't you coming?"

Cordelia shook her head. "I can't. My job's done."

"But...you and I were..."

"The Powers That Be made the decision," she said. She winked at Gwen. "But I promise I'll see you soon. Think of me as your own personal guardian angel, you know?"

"How about as a friend?"

Cordelia smiled as she started to return to the place where she had been. "Friend it is, then."

Gwen watched until Cordelia was gone, and then she headed to the double doors. Taking a deep breath, she walked in, knowing that she was going to be okay, that things would work out, and that she'd have a little help when she needed it.

---

Savage Garden » Hold Me
* = lyrics used in fic

Hey
If we can't find a way out of these problems
* Then maybe we don't need this
Standing face to face
Enemies at war we build defences
And secret hiding places
I might need you to hold me tonight
I might need you to say it's alright
I might need you to make the first stand
Because tonight I'm finding it hard to be your man
Hey
More than angry words I hate this silence
* It's getting so loud
Well I want to scream
But bitterness has silenced these emotions
It's getting hard to breathe
So tell me isn't happiness
Worth more than a gold diamond ring?
* I'm willing to do anything
To calm the storm in my heart
* I've never been the praying kind
But lately I've been down upon my knees
* Not looking for a miracle
* Just a reason to believe
I might need you to hold me tonight
I might need you to say it's alright
I might need you to make the first stand
Because tonight I'm finding it hard to be your man
Do you remember not long ago?
When we used to live for the nighttime
Cherish each moment
Now we don't live we exist
* We just run through our lives
So alone
That's why you've got to hold me
Hey
If we can't find a way out of these problems
Then maybe we don't need this
Standing face to face
Enemies at war we build defences
And secret hiding places
I might need you to hold me tonight
I might need you to say it's alright
I might need you to make the first stand
Because tonight I'm finding it hard to be your man

 

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author Ragna.
If this work is yours and you would like to reclaim ownership, you can click on the Technical Support and Feedback link at the bottom fo the page.