Silver Cloud, Bitter Lining (2/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- none for 'Angel.' General BtVS back story up to 'Wrecked.'

Distribution- FF.net, AOH anyone else just ask :)

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey, allusions to past Cordy/Xander

Rating- R

Summary- Cordy fills Lilah in on Sunnydale

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

Notes- sequel to 'Southern Comfort.' You'll probably want to read that first…

"Are you sure you don’t want me to carry that?" Cordy asked Lilah, as they turned into Revello drive, gesturing to Lilah's shoulder bag.

"I can handle a bag. I should be the one offering to help you. How long are you staying for? A month?" Lilah said pointing to Cordy's over-stuffed suitcase.

"I had to be prepared for every occasion…" Cordy told her, "Thick woolly sweater in case of snow… don't knock it there was snow here one time… miracle snow but it might happen again. Right up the clothing scale to black halter neck bikini in case of heat wave."

Lilah smiled at her affectionately.

"I'm nervous," Cordy admitted, shivering slightly.

"Me too…" Lilah told her, "But I have a valid reason. I've never met these people before… why are you so stressed?"

"When I lived in Sunnydale I was like this… uber bitch. I'm just wondering how everyone, especially my ex will react to the new and improved Cordy."

"And your ex would be…"

"Xander."

"The guy that dropped Dawn off at the hotel. Dark hair… cute in a dorky sort of way?"

"That's him," Cordy told her with a slight smile, "Xander Harris. My first true love…"

"And the award to oddest couple ever goes to…"

"I know… a may queen and a zeppo. That's what I called him once in one of our many slanging matches. He was a major high school nerd… but I loved him… and he broke my heart."

"I know the feeling…" Lilah said, her voice holding a hint of sadness.

Cordy opened her mouth to offer sympathy but before she could Lilah cut her off quickly.

"So fill me in on who's who in Sunnydale…"

"OK so Buffy is the slayer…" Cordy said, glad for the intervention.

"This is Dawn's sister right?"

"Right. This is whose house we're staying at. Their mum died last year which explains the actual having of a house and lack of parental control."

"I had no idea…" Lilah said, visibly upset.

"I think it was pretty tough on Dawn… that's mainly why she came to stay with us for the summer…"

"Do her and Buffy fight a lot?"

"Not really… I don’t think Buffy's around a whole lot though… with work and slaying and assorted other teenage stuff…"

"Wow, she's just a kid herself…"

"I know… major life change much?"

"So lots of Dawn time then?" Lilah asked.

"A tonne of Dawn time…" Cordy told her.

"So… OK. Buffy equals slayer. Xander is your ex. And Dawn… is that it?"

"Not by a mile… there's Willow. She's apparently living at the house too… which may lead to incredible over-crowding… guess it looks like we'll be sharing a room…"

"How shockingly tragic…" Lilah said with a smile.

"I missed you," Cordy told her, a hint of sentiment in her voice, "We all did…"

"OK… no affection… not yet…"

"You not ready to talk?" Cordy asked her, concerned.

"Everything's still a little raw…" Lilah confessed guiltily.

"No problem…"

"So anyway… you were saying… Willow…"

"Right… OK her and Buffy were like best friends in high school. Willow was like this grade A student, steady boyfriend, really, really good at wicca and magick and all that junk… so suddenly as of two years she's a lesbian, recently split from girlfriend… Tara I think and she's actually trying to quit an *addiction* to magick…"

Lilah looked at her questioningly.

"Buffy filled me in when I called her last week so we didn’t say or bring anything remotely magickal… so hide the candles…"

"Check… no magickal spells… or candles?" Lilah asked cynically.

"It's so Willow's not 'tempted' apparently…" Cordy told her.

"OK… who's next?" Lilah asked.

"Anya. Xander's new girlfriend…" Cordy said with a hint of jealousy, "Ex vengeance demon… now human… oh and then there's Spike… vampire, used to go by the name William the bloody. You heard of him?"

Lilah nodded.

"One of Angel's ex-cronies right? Ran with the whole wonderful world of Darla rat pack?"

"Totally… not crony in the strictest sense of the word… Anyway supposedly a bunch of evil scientists working for the government put a chip in his brain so now he can't bite anyone… hence the goodness…"

"And I thought you guys in LA were weird…" Lilah said.

"Most of them are really nice…" Cordy told her, "And it's only a week…"

"That's what I'm afraid of… the part where it's only a week…"

"Unless you don’t come back… ever." Cordy said with a hint of sorrow.

"Anyway…" Lilah said with a fake smile… "No feeling sorry for Lilah… not until tomorrow anyway… is this it?" she said, pointing to the Summer's house, "1630 Revello drive right?"

"Yep… this is it…" Cordy took a deep breath, "Oh and one more thing… Dawn doesn't exactly know we're coming… it's supposed to be a surprise…"

They walked up the driveway, silently, side by side, glancing at each other on reaching the porch before Cordy rang the doorbell.

"Dawn! Will you get that?" Cordy heard Buffy yell from inside the house…