This story takes place after "Bad Eggs," and goes into an alternate universe direction from there. I did write part after Innocence, so don't think I'm psychic.  I will never finish it since it has been completely Jossed, but I liked some of the scenes so I decided to post it.

     It was a slow night for hunting vampires.  With the master dead, and Spike and Drusilla out of the picture, most of the vamps left were hiding in fear.  She had killed nearly all of the older ones, and the young ones didn't have the skill to take her on.
     Even though she couldn't hear him, she knew Angel was coming up behind her.  He knew she knew, and she knew he knew she knew.  She turned around.
     "I wondered if you were going to show."
     "I didn't know you were hunting tonight.  I thought you were confined to your room."
     "I was.  But I had to get out of there.  You know, as much as I wish I had a normal life sometimes, slaying vampires is actually a really good way to relieve stress.  At least when I fight vampires I know what I'm doing.  It's really straight forward.  Not a lot of gray area here..."  Buffy noticed a look on Angel's face.  "Well, except for one."  Angel smiled.
     "Still... People look at me like I'm a delinquent, and it really hurts.  I'm not looking for praise, or even thanks.  But a little understanding wouldn't hurt.."
     "It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  Everyone who counts knows who you are and what you do."
     "My mother.  I just wish I could tell her.  I mean, I saved the entire school, and my mom, from a giant blob, which I was inside of by the way, not a pleasant memory, which had taken over their bodies, and what do I get?  Grounded!  I just wish she wasn't so disappointed in me all the time."
     "Buffy, I'm sorry.  For everything that you have to go through, I'm sorry."
     "Don't be sorry.  Just hold me.  I have to get home soon."  Angel took Buffy into his arms, and held her there for a short time.  She looked up at him, and her eyes met his.  As she gazed into them she saw understanding.  She saw pain, a deep and abiding pain.  She saw fear, fear for her from the danger she faced on a daily basis, fear of losing her, fear of becoming too close to her, too involved, and losing his fragile control over the demon that was always just below the surface.  Most of all she saw love.  A deep, passionate love that transcended who they were, and their fates that kept them apart.  She gazed into them for a long time, and then they kissed.

     Joyce Summers was not happy to find that Buffy was not at the Bronze.  She didn't see Willow or Xander either, but she wasn't surprised, because it was almost quarter of two in the morning, and even though it was a Friday she doubted Willow was ever out that late.  And where Willow was, Xander was sure to be as well.
       "Why can't I have a daughter like Willow?"  She thought, and immediately regretted it.  "But it's true!  Willow is so sweet, and quiet, and studious, polite, gets good grades, and is well liked by her teachers.  Why can't Buffy be more like that?"  She was at first relieved when Buffy became close with Willow, because the little red head would keep her out of trouble, at least when she was with her, and Willow seemed incapable of lying.  But Buffy was getting in trouble again, and she had heard she was dating an older man.  "I bet it's that ‘history tutor'", she thought to herself.  "What was his name, Angel?"  If he was really a tutor, Buffy wouldn't be failing history, especially considering how often she saw him, and how much time she spent in the library.
     Joyce was a little suspicious of all the time Buffy spent in the library with Mr. Giles, but Willow and Xander were usually there, and he seemed like a decent fellow.  But with all that tutoring, there should have been a marked improvement in her grades.
     Joyce scanned the Bronze for someone Buffy knew, and spied Cordelia Chase saying good-bye to some other girls at a nearby table.

     Cordelia Chase was one of the few Sunnydale High students still in the Bronze that night, and she was bored out of her skull.  Her insipid little group was hanging on every word of Harmony, who was relating in great detail how Josh Stevens, who was dating Priscilla Miller, had gotten caught in the back seat of Carmen Francis' dads corvette making out with Carmen's sister Elia, who was a Freshman in college. Cordelia really didn't care to hear about Josh Steven's sex life, as he had never really been her friend, and she really didn't care about Priscilla who was a prissy little bitch who couldn't dress to save her ass.  Willow had a better wardrobe then she did.
     Cordelia felt a twinge of guilt when she thought of the hacker, just like she always did.  Before she had met Buffy, Willow had just been a quiet, smart girl with no fashion sense, which made her an easy target.  Cordelia understood now that the only reason she had picked on Willow was so that other people would see how mean she was, and that's what would happen to them if they weren't nice to her.  And since she was the most beautiful girl in school, hanging with her was the way to get noticed.  That's why she had friends.  People were afraid not to be.
     On the other hand, she knew that they could turn on her at any minute, if they decided they didn't like her anymore.  Her control over the clique that she founded was slipping, and she could tell that others, like Harmony, were just waiting to cast her down from her pedestal in the eyes of the others, so that they would worship her instead of Cordelia.  She could see the jealousy in Harmony's eyes.
     The strangest part was that she didn't care. Let the little bitch have her fun. They'd turn on her in a heartbeat if it gave them the chance to be the number one.  She looked at the group around her table, she realized that not one of them really cared about any of the others.   The only reason why they were friends is that they were the most beautiful and richest girls in town, and therefore were expected to hang out together.  Their parents had.  That, and that they were never sober enough to realize that they didn't like each other.  She never shared anything with any of them, and they never shared anything with her.  She realized that Buffy knew more about her fears and dreams then her supposed "best friends".  She felt a great twinge of envy when she thought of the Slayer and her Slayerettes.  How close they were, and how they shared everything.  They would always be there for each other, ready to help and even to die for each other.  She desperately wanted to be included in their little circle, but they kept her at arms length, for good reasons.  Even Xander, and they were making out practically everyday.
     She got really angry then, because Xander had stood her up for Willow again.  She had always told him (and herself) that she was embarrassed by him, and couldn't let her friends know she was making out with such a loser, but she knew that wasn't true.  Even Harmony had admitted that he had gotten kinda cute, and seeing him on Halloween, when he gave her his jacket...She had never realized how built he really was.  Not that he was anything like Angel, but he was all dog eyed over Buffy, so there was no hope there.  The real reason that she wouldn't come out of the closet with Xander, so to speak, was because she was afraid.  Not of what her friends would say, but of what Willow would say.  She could tell that the red-head had a huge crush on Xander, and why he couldn't see it she couldn't fathom.  But Cordelia had spent years making Willow's life hell, and if Willow found out that she had stolen him, there would be hell to pay.  Buffy would be pissed, and she certainly didn't want to get on her bad side.  But worse, Willow might be hurt enough to force Xander to choose between he two of them.  And in a battle for Xander's heart, Cordelia didn't stand a chance.  And losing what she had with Xander, shallow and clandestine as it was, was something that she couldn't face.
     She had always been intrigued by Xander.  He had bad fashion and bad hair, and hung with two total losers, but when it came to insults he was the only person who could give back as good as he got.  Jesse was always making clumsy passes at her, treating her like a piece of meat (well, let's be honest, she told herself, that's what I am), and Willow was...Willow, but Xander just treated her like dirt.  He was the only one with guts. Even though she couldn't stand him, and he was something of a cretin.
     Then Buffy moved to Sunnydale, and everything changed.  All of the sudden, he became heroic.  Jesse died, which bothered her more than she cared to admit, and both Xander and Willow became more self-assured.  At first she had thought Buffy was a loony (with good reason, she had attacked her with a stake.  That was one of the few things Cordelia didn't feel guilty for.  She knew, if their positions were reversed, Buffy would have thought the same of her.) But then all of them had put their lives on the line to fight that crazy Marcie.  (She felt a powerful cringe of regret there, after the way she treated them the next day with Mitch.  She had her revenge on him, though...) And then the whole prom night madness had made her reevaluate her life, and change it for the better.  She remembered the kidnaping the first day of school, and that crazy Erik who was going to cut off her head.  Xander had saved her that night, and then blew her off like she was nothing.  She couldn't understand why, but that had really hurt.  But she couldn't bring herself to be that mean to any of them anymore, except to try to get Angel away from Buffy but that was a lost cause.  It didn't hit her until she was trapped in Buffy's basement, and he was going to let her go up to meet her doom.  Suddenly, it really mattered what he thought, and she was so pissed for his evident lack of concern for her.  She was about to let him have it, when she looked into his eyes, and suddenly she had to kiss him.  And it had been incredible.  Of all her substantial experience with men, this had been the best.  Electricity had surged through her body, and her body had been moved in away that she had never experienced before.  She had heard people talk of the "earth moving", but had never believed it...until Xander kissed her.  It hit her right then: She was in love with Xander.  Completely, hopelessly, and honestly in love.  Terrified of her feelings, she tried to deny them, but she ended up in the same place: in his arms, kissing him, this time in the science room.  It was the same, even better except it wasn't the first.  She never wanted to stay in his arms forever, but she was too afraid.  Afraid he would choose Willow.
     At first, Xander had kissed her with the same passion she felt.  But, in time, passion turned to horniness, and she began to suspect that he just liked to make out with her.  She loved everything that made him Xander, all his annoying traits, but she suspected that he found her annoying traits basically that...annoying.  The way he went on and on about Willow and Buffy.  It was evident that he worshiped Buffy like a goddess, he made no bones about that.  But his love for Willow was much deeper.  Cordelia knew that she was his best friend, but deep down, she could sense that he truly loved her.  She didn't think that even Buffy or Xander himself knew this.  (Of course, Buffy never heard him go on about her while she was making out with him...On the other hand, if Buffy wanted to make out with him Cordelia wouldn't get the time of day from Xander.)
     Her attentions turned back to the insipid Harmony, who was now relating how Xander Harris and Buffy Summers had been spotted making out in the utility closet that morning.  Cordelia laughed out loud.
     "Why is that so weird?"  asked Amanda.  "They're both reasonably attractive, both weird."
     "It's absurd," said Cordelia.
     "I know," said Harmony, "because I saw it."
     "You did not.  You heard it from Krissy Peters who heard from Jenn Thomas whose freshman cousin said she saw someone who looked like Xander go into a closet and come out a half hour later with his shirt inside out.  I already heard that, as usual you're late on the uptake, little brain."  Cordelia laughed inside at her nickname for Harmony.  The other girls paid no attention, she was just being Cordelia, maybe even jealous because she wasn't the first to get the gossip.  Cordelia really wished she had some alcohol.
     "Cordy, you've been really quiet tonight.  Is anything wrong?" asked Kelly.  Cordelia really liked Kelly.  She was a sweetheart.  She wasn't as "in" as much as Harmony or Aura, but because Cordelia liked her everyone else did too.  She decided to play up the phony sympathy angle, where she tells some tragic story that's not true, and everyone commiserates with her, than laughs at her when she leaves, (She knew about the laughing because Kelly had told her once.) If only to shut Harmony up.  Her voice was starting to grate on Cordelia.
     "Oh, my parents had a fight tonight.  They were all mad and throwing things, and it wasn't good for my hair."
     "You know, when my parents fight–..." Harmony said.
     "Hello, motor-mouth, I was talking here.  No one cares about your childhood trauma."  Harmony sat back, chastised.  "You still have it," Cordelia thought to herself.  "Complete control."  Harmony had gone from center of attention to completely ignored, at a word from Cordelia.  As she spun some absurd tale of woe in her home, she gloated at Harmony, who glared back.
     It hadn't always been that way.  They had really been friends once.  When popularity had been the end all be all.  But when Kevin had died, she had been forced to grow up faster than she wanted.  Now her...interests were different then theirs were.
     She stopped talking when she thought of Kevin.  "Cordelia, what is it?"  Asked Kelly.
     "I just thought of Kevin," she said honestly.  At that, everyone at the table was silent, and for a brief moment, the jealousies that were tearing them apart were forgotten. They had all known the boys that had died in that room, although none as well as Cordelia.  She had ever told anyone, but she was seeing a counselor for that. She had really liked Kevin.  At that, she realized how much she really owed to Buffy.  Cordelia looked around at the group at the table, and knew that they would be like this much more.  "Most of them are as unhappy as I am," she realized.  "We've grown apart, we don't like each other, and the only time we really talk about something besides clothes and gossip is when someone dies.  What a life..."
     As Cordelia was leaving, she saw Mrs. Summers heading her way.  "What could she want," she thought to herself.  "It's quarter of two in the morning."
     "Hello, Mrs. Summers," she said to her.
     "Hello, Cordelia.   Has anyone seen Buffy tonight?"
     Cordelia was about to say no, even though she knew perfectly well where Buffy was, but Harmony was faster.  "She's probably in the cemetery."  Cordelia rolled her eyes.
     "Why on earth would she be the cemetery?" asked Mrs. Summers.
     "She meets some guy there.  He's–..." Cordelia interrupted the blonde haired girl.
     "I'm sorry, Mrs. Summers, Harmony's not very bright most of the time.  She was dropped on her head as a child.  No one in their right mind would spend any time in a cemetery at night, no matter what boys were there."
     Mrs. Summers thanked the girls and left.  Cordelia was sure that she hadn't bought it.  "What is your mental defect?  You know you don't sell out someone like that, even if you don't like them.  And sending a woman to the cemetery at night?  Do you know what Buffy would do if anything happened to her mother?  She'd kick your ass halfway across the street!  I guess your brain cells really do grow out with blonde hair."  Leaving Harmony embarrassed and the rest of the girls laughing hysterically, she turned on her heel.  "I need to get my beauty sleep."  Harmony decided the only thing to do was laugh with everyone else.  "Very soon, Cordelia," she thought to herself. "Everything you have will be mine."
     Cordelia knew that Mrs. Summers would go to the cemetery if she thought there was any chance at all that Buffy was there.  The parking lot was fairly empty by that point, but Cordelia was parked close.  Not close enough, as it turned out.
     She never heard him coming behind her, didn't know he was there until she was grabbed and thrown to the ground.  She tried to scream, but the wind had been forced out of her.  The man straddle her, and she saw the demonic visage of his face.  Oddly, it gave her a small comfort that her attacker was a vampire and not a rapist.  She had fought vampires before.
     Cordelia hit the demon in the face, and brought her knee up between his legs.  The vamp hissed, but rolled off, and Cordelia grabbed her bag before he got her again.  He brought his fangs to her neck, but by that time she had managed to grab what she was looking for–a wooden cross she always carried with her at Buffy's insistence.  The vamp rolled off in pain, but was only distracted for a minute before he was back.  But that minute had been enough, and Cordelia shoved a sharpened stake, another gift from Buffy, into the vamps chest.  He exploded into bits of dust.
     Cordelia sat up, breathing hard.  After the shock wore off, she stood up and dusted off, quite pleased with herself.  "I just killed a vampire!" she thought to herself.  "Wow.  That was pretty cool.  I might have to do that again!"  Then she remembered why she was rushing out in the first place, and hurried to her car.
     Cordelia sped out of the parking lot and headed for the cemetery.  When she got there, she saw Joyce Summer's car parked, and the woman walking towards two figures standing together, embraced.  A woman and a man, one with dark hair and one with blonde hair.  And they definitely were not Buffy and Angel.  She didn't know about the woman, but the man was most certainly Spike.  "What the hell is she doing," Cordelia thought.

     Rupert Giles sat in the library, staring at the Codex, attempting to decipher it.  There were no upcoming cataclysmic events, but he thought it would be a good chance to get a jump on research, in order to be prepared for the next challenge Buffy would face.  But it was late, and he had a long day, and attempting to translate the Codex was an exercise in futility.
     He looked up as Jenny Calendar came into the room.  "Rupert, I figured that you would still be here."
     "Ah– Ms–Jenny, hello."
     "I tried to call you at home, but you weren't in."
     "Yes, I was just trying– I was just studying the Codex, seeing what sort of ancient prophecies we might come up against next."
     "Anything soon?"
     "Well, nothing yet, but of course it never hurts to be prepared.  With Spike and Drusilla out of the way, it affords us a small amount of relative quiet, which me must use to the best of our advantage to avert the next apocalypse.  Have you heard anything from your...machine, Internet thing?"
     Ms.  Calendar smiled at his choice of phrasing.  "No.  Brother Luca hasn't sent any email for a while now, actually."
     "That's actually somewhat reassuring."
     "Rupert, the apocalypse isn't coming, and it's almost two in the morning of a Friday night, and you're still at school.  Why don't you go home and get a good night sleep?"
     "I really need to..."
     "Talk, Rupert.  What gives."
     "All right... I can't shake this feeling of doom I'm having.  It seems that, even though there is no real threats at the present, all my instincts are telling me to run for the hills.  Something seems to be  coming, but no prophecy's or signs back that up."
     "You should trust your guts Rupert.  But you obviously aren't going to achieve anything tonight.  Let me take you home."
     "Well, my car is here."
     "Oh, come on, let me drive."
     "But, I'd be left with any means of..."
     "Who said I would be going anywhere?" she asked pointedly.
     "Oh, yes...Well of course.  Let me just lock this away..."  Giles put the Codex in a drawer, locked the drawer, and then shut and locked the cage behind him.  He followed Jenny out to her car.  "Are you certain this is a good idea..."
     "Rupert.  Get in."  Giles got in Jenny's passenger seat, and the two drove away.

     Joyce Summers saw the two in the cemetery, but couldn't tell at first who they were.  As she started walking in the cemetery, she suddenly decided that she was being stupid.  Buffy had pulled some ridiculous stunts in her life, but she honestly didn't believe Buffy would do something this stupid.  She started to turn around, when she saw the two people coming towards her.
     The man walked with a severe limp, and seemed to be supported by the woman.  The woman was very pale, and very thin.  She might be beautiful, if she looked more healthy.  The man had a huge scar on his face, as if he had been burned.  He looked familiar, but she couldn't place him.
     "Do you know who she is, love?"  Drusilla asked.
     "Of course, pet," Spike responded.  "He leaned in close to her "It's the slayer's mother."
     "Oh, the one who hit you with an ax?"
     "Do we really have to bring that up?" Dru frowned, and started to pout.  "Oh, I'm sorry pet.  It's just that slayer's beaten me four times now.  She's so..."
     Dru leaned in close, and whispered in Spike's ear.  "I have an idea, love.  Why don't we kill the Slayer's mummy?  And then we'll have a party at the funeral."
     "A party for you, pet."
     "With daisies...and streamers...and we'll invite all of our friends..."
     "Anything for you, ducks."
     "I'm a princess..."
     Mrs.  Summers had started to walk back to her car, thinking that she was a total fool to come to a cemetery at night when Buffy was definitely not there.  Those two people coming towards her were creeping her out, and she started to walk faster.
     "What's the rush, love," she heard the man say, and recognized the voice.  It was the man who attacked Buffy on parent teacher night.  She turned around.
     "What do you want?"
     "We're going to kill you," the woman said, and started to giggle.  "And then we're going to have a party.  It'll be so much fun..." Suddenly Dru stopped giggling, and hid behind Spike.  "Spike..." she whined.
     "You stay back," said Cordelia, brandishing a cross.
     "Isn't that sweet." said Spike.  "The slayer's little cheerleader friend coming to the rescue."  His voice suddenly turned cold.  "It isn't going to work, hun.  I know that you can't kill me."  He could see Cordelia starting to back down.  She wanted to run, he could tell, but that would surely kill them both.  She stood her ground.  "You shouldn't have come here tonight, cheerleader.  But now I get to kill both of you."
     "Can I have one, Spike?" Drusilla asked.
     "Of course you can, pet.  We'll share them both."
     "You just stay away from us," said Cordelia, uncertainly.
     "And whose going to stop us?" asked Spike, laughing.  "You?"
     "I am", came a familiar voice from behind.
     "Oh, thank God," said Cordelia.
     "Angel!" said Dru.  "We're going to have a party!"  Spike just glared at him.
     "Get out of here," Angel said to Cordelia.  "I'll take care of this."
     "Thank god you showed up," said Cordelia.
     "You handled yourself pretty well, actually.  Now leave."  Cordelia and a stunned Mrs.  Summers ran quickly to the street.
     "I though I told you to leave Sunnydale," Angel said to Dru.
     "But we're having a party," said Dru.  "And it's coming soon, when–..."
     "Hush, Dru," said Spike.  "Don't say anything to Angel."
     "When, Dru?" said Angel.  "When's your party?"
     "I can't tell you.  I can only tell Miss Edith.  And she won't talk to you."  Dru said, smiling.
     "Leave, Dru.  Or it will go badly."
     "Let's go, Dru.  We don't need to waste time talking with this...lap dog."  As Spike and Dru turned to leave, Angel glared after them.