The Promise: 8 Years Later

By Melissa Flores

(melissaf@scf.usc.edu)

 Buffy disappeared, their leader died, and the remnants of the Scooby Gang formed a pact that meant forever. Now, eight years later, they are reminded of their promise as they come back together to find an old friend, a new enemy and realize that no matter what happens, true friends are always there.
Chapter Two: The Bracelets
   It had taken her a couple of hours, but she had found them. Cordelia was the easiest, just write her at her studio.  Xander didn't need to be traced.  He was in New York.  His mom had told her.  Even given her his address.  Oz was a little harder.  She actually had to join his fan club.  It seemed kind of irate that she had to join her ex-boyfriend's fan club just to get an address. But she had done it, paid her dues and everything.  Now she even had an I love Oz bumper sticker.  Well, she smiled. That was true enough.  She reached over and picked up the gossip column that had a picture of him and Cordelia at a party. They had their arms wrapped around each other, cheek to cheek, both smiling.  They looked so much the couple.  Willow felt her heart stop.  She knew how it must have felt for them now.  To see... to have to see.. the two of them together.... She pushed those thoughts aside and began to stuff the treasured bracelets in the envelopes.  She would mail them, and then her work was done.  If they had remembered their promise, they would come as soon as they got the message.  But would they honor it?  Willow nodded to herself.  They would.  They had to. They remembered.
 
 

 "Hey Alex!  Mail!"

   "Okay!"  Xander called back, adjusting his suit and tie in front of the mirror.  His eyes drifted quickly to side of the mirror.  Willow and Oz smiled at him from an old photo. He let himself grin a little.  They were so good together.  He wondered if Oz still hated him, after all these years. No, he didn't think so.  Xander didn't hate him, and he had taken Cordelia from him.  No, he corrected himself.  He had lost Cordelia himself.  Oz and her had become so close because of what he had done.  With Willow. At first, for those three years when it was just the four of them searching for Buffy and trying desperately to grow up
when they were only teenagers, it had  seemed so easy to stick together, to form a bond.

When Giles had died, killed in a routing patrol gone horribly wrong, the four of them had no one else but themselves.  It was Xander and Cordy, and Willow and Oz.  And Cordelia and Willow became so close.  Because Willow had been chosen as  a  Watcher, and Cordelia was the only person who even had the trickling of talent in the Slayer capacity, at least until they found Buffy.  Until they found Buffy.  That was what they would always say.  Even  years later.  Willow would say, "When we find Buffy, I can be her Watcher."  And Cordelia "When we find Buffy, I can give up her funky gig." Xander had kept quiet. Truthfully, he  didn't think Buffy would ever come back. And it had been his fault. Because he had lied.

  He had felt bad about that, really bad. But he never told anyone, not even when he began to try and look for Angel. For three years, it had been the four of them. And they even had some good times. They were family. Cordelia completely changed. She trained hard, she was kind to Willow, and she had begun to show Xander how much she cared about him. Of course she was still Cordelia, she still said bitca-ish things, but overall, she was a much more beautiful person. She became the person he had always thought she had the potential to become.  Willow became the unofficial leader of the group, Cordelia, being the one who risked her life more than anyone else, was in second, and the boyfriends, in full whipped mode, helped out with what ever they could.  It was Xander's job to keep Oz tied up when that time of the month came.  And Oz and Willow clung to each other.  Just like Xander had clung to Cordy.

 And then it happened, Willow, in an attempt to find out where Angel and Buffy were, began to play with magic.  And she got in way over her head.  One night, Cordelia and Oz were out on patrol, and Xander had stayed behind in the library to make sure Willow was okay.  She began to conjure a pair of spirits, a tragic pair that fell in love in the library and lost a love too soon.  She was sure if Buffy and Angel were dead, they would be them.  But it wasn't them she conjured up.  It was Giles and Jenny, and their spirits possessed Xander and Willow.  They began kissing each other, desperately, passionately, and Giles and Jenny were finally at peace, and they left.  But Willow and Xander had kept going.  He didn't know what had gotten into them.  If he had actually stopped to think, he would have immediately thought of Cordelia, who really had captured his heart by then, and stopped. And he knew the same would have happened with Willow.  But they didn't' think.  The possession was so
intense, so electrifying that even when they were out of it, they were never really out of it. They just kept kissing.  And suddenly they were on the floor, and that's when the doors swung open and Cordelia and Oz had both walked in, tired and exhausted, laughing and joking with each other like old friends.  Until they saw Xander and Willow.  And all the happiness that was on their faces slid off.

 Xander had looked up into Cordelia's eyes.  And in it he saw her heart was bleeding. She looked wounded. And Xander felt his heart break. She just looked at the two of their faces, saw the guilt in their eyes, and her jaw clenched up and she swung around and just walked right back out.  And a millisecond later, Oz had followed her.

 That was when their friendship truly started.  And when the four of theirs had truly begun to tear apart.  Cordelia and Oz stayed in Sunnydale, but each made if clear to their prospective lovers that they were only staying because of their promise. Cordelia set to work to find another Slayer, and Oz assisted Willow (not helped, mind you.  He and Willow were strictly platonic, though Xander and Willow had both tried to tell them the kissing didn't mean anything) in finding Angel.  And in two years, Angel was brought back from hell disturbed and shaken, and Jamie, the new Chosen Slayer had been found.  And the day she came into Sunnydale, Cordelia and Oz shipped out.  Together. Xander had only had one last dance with Cordelia, the night before she left, and in those few short minutes, he realized he had lost something very special.  And his heart had cracked.
 Xander had tried to stay best friends with Willow, even going so far as helping get Angel's sanity back.  But it was no use.  Their friendship had been destroyed.  Xander knew he could have loved Willow, and Willow could have brought back that love she used to feel for him, but the memories of Cordelia and Oz were too much for them.  Finally, he hugged his platonic pal goodbye, and gone to New York.  And he had started over.   But he had never forgotten his friends.  Or Cordelia.

 "Hey Alex!"  Brian rapped on his doorframe, and looked at him curiously.  "You okay?" Xander gave him a half smile.

   "Yeah, I'm cool.  You ready to trade some major stockage today?"

 "Oh yeah!   It's my day! I can feel it!"  Brian banged on his chest a-la-Tarzan, before holding out a wrinkled envelope.  "This just came to one "Xander Harris."  Dude, what's that all about?"

 Xander's smile froze, and he grabbed the letter from him and stared at it, with shaking hands.  The postscript was Sunnydale, and the address was typed.  Willow.  He tore open the envelope, and found no letter.  Opening the envelope further, he peered down, and slowly pulled out a plain leather bracelet.

 "Oh, shit."  He whispered.  He rushed to his closet and pulled out his suitcase.

 "Alex?"  Brian stared at him from the doorway, obviously confused.  "What are you doing?"

 "I gotta go."  Xander said quickly.

 "Yeah!  To work! We've got a major day today."

 "Tell Mel I'm taking a few days off."  Xander snapped, pulled shirts out of his dresser and throwing them in the open suitcase.

"What?  Why!"

 "Because."  Xander turned to look at his roommate.  "I made a promise."
 
 

 "Hey, Jessica."

 Jessica Stapleton, secretary extraordinaire and all around efficient person looked up and smiled.  "Miss Chase! How are you doing today!" Cordelia smiled halfheartedly.

 “Tell you the truth, I need some adoring fan mail to brighten my day.  I need some one to tell me that I'm the greatest person in the world, the most beautiful, and they dream of one day marrying me and making all my dreams come true."  She leaned on Jessica's desk. "Even if it's from a girl."

 Jessica smiled.  "I could tell you that!  Well, not the marrying part of course but-"

 "You don't count, I pay you.  Anything interesting for me?"  Cordelia cut in.  Jessica always saved the most interesting fan mail to show Cordelia before she had her responders send something back.  It ranged from lunatics to gifts, to really sweet letters.  They always made Cordelia feel good.  Made her believe she was still the center of the universe.  "Any gifts?"

 "Well, actually, yes.  Some lace underwear, a couple of naked pictures of a .... Well... very well endowed young man.... And this."  Jessica rummaged through her boxes on the side of her desk and pulled something out.  "It's not really all that expensive but it looked rather old.  Very interesting, actually. No letter came with it."  She held up a small dull bronze bracelet, with writings on the side.  Cordelia froze when she saw it.

 Suddenly she seemed to gain her senses and grabbed it from her.  "Where did this come from?"  she demanded. Jessica looked a little nervous that all of a sudden her superior would go postal like that, and she really feared for her job.  She searched the recessions of her mind to come up vainly for an answer.

 "Uh... Sunnywade... Sunnyside..."

 "Sunnydale?" Cordelia closed her fingers around the piece of jewelry, straightened up, and whirled out of the room.

 "Well that was rude, even for her."  Jessica mumbled.
 

 "Come on, Oz, pick up the damn phone."  Cordelia breathed as she swerved along the freeway, praying that Oz had kept his cell phone on. There was a flight to Sunnydale in a half  hour. The cell phone rang, and Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief as she heard an audible click.

 "Oz."

 "Oz!  It's me!  Check your fan mail!"

 "What?"

 "Check you damn fan mail!  Now!"

 "Cordelia!"  Oz's voice was full of concern.  "What's wrong?"

 "I got the bracelet!  The funky one that Willow said she would send to me?  The one that looks like it came from Pic N Save?"

 Oz's voice got dead quiet.  "I think I'll check my mail." He said.

 "Good. I'll meet you in Sunnydale."  Cordelia said, clicking the phone off.   She swerved, narrowly missing a Volvo, and cursed under her breath.  Quickly reaching for her phone again, she dialed the speed dial. "Yeah. Cordelia Chase calling for Dave Stinger... Chase!  C-H-A-S-E!.......   I don't care if he's in a meeting or not, if you don't put in with him, I'll sign with another company!.....  Dave, it's Cordelia.  I'm going on vacation.... I know I have a shoot today! Cancel it!......  I know that!..... Of course I'm acting like a five year old! I'm an actress!"

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