Title: Matters of Blood, Love, and Family

Author: Nodakskip [email protected]

Rating: PG-13

Ship: Cordelia/Xander

Setting: AU at the start of season 3 and then set after season seven Buffy. Contains at least three crossovers.

Note: Xander is talked about and seen in flashbacks, but not in this till the end.

Summary: After Xander is ambushed and may die, his girlfriend Cordelia risks her life to save him.

Chapter 1

New Watchers Council Compound

a.k.a. The Queens School for Girls

35 miles outside of London, England

Main Gymnasium Complex.

January, 2005

The large, brand-new building that housed four full-size gyms, three weight rooms, and two pools was packed as always. It was the weekend too, so there were many teenaged kids running about here and there, yelling and fooling around.

When one looked, there appeared to be a really large gap in the numbers of female to male students. But since it was primarily a school for teenage girls, there was no problem with that fact. At least, not to the 39 teenage boys who attended the institution...

The rest of the student body – all 172 of them – was teenage girls. So, bottom line, the unbalanced ratio and the school's rural setting made sure that many of the boys led very active social lives.

There *was* another special circumstance, that contributed to making the boys' nights interesting; of the female students, over 80% of them were Slayers – the Chosen Ones, who had been called when Willow Rosenberg had activated them worldwide to help in the battle with the First.

Girls who often got hungry and horny...

The boys, and the other 20% of the girls, were either the brothers, sisters, friends, cousins, or significant others to the Slayers. And one such person, Dawn Summers – the now 18-year-old sister of the 'Alpha Slayer' Buffy Summers – was sitting at a round lunch table towards the back of the cavernous building.

And she was shaking her head, at what her mealtime companion was saying.

"Come on, baby D, you have *got* to have a lot of pent-up sexual energy stored up here!" the brunette teen was told. "You need a man, if only for just one night. Or, preferably, the entire weekend. And hey – your big sis can't control who you have your wicked way with, not anymore!"

Dawn just shook her head, as she ate some more salad. "Faith, we're talking about *Andrew* here!!"

The second longest active Slayer shrugged. "So?" she grunted out between bites of onion rings. Then she shrugged, "Okay, granted he's a bit of a dork, but you waited too long with your friend Carlos. So, unless you wanna get into a cat-fight with one of the Chosen crowd, he's basically the only one available right now!"

"Faith," Dawn sighed, as she thought about what Faith was insinuating. "I don't love Carlos that way, and even if I did – no way am I gonna do something like that to Kit. Plus...I don't want my first time be with a guy who might be gay, and used to draw pictures of me in colored spandex!"

"Love doesn't enter into it here, li'l sis. You just need a quick roll in the hay...you never know, why not ask Kit if she's willing to share her boy toy?"

The Summers girl almost choked, at the prospect of a threesome with her best friends. "Faith!"

The 'Beta Slayer' held up her hands. "Fine, how about tonight I grab a set of keys and we head into town, or at least that military academy..." she stopped, as she saw the other girl's face. "What?"

Dawn shook her head firmly. "I just don't want my first time to be some guy whose name I might not even remember later..." The girl then mentally kicked herself, when she saw Faith look down for a moment after she spoke.

"Let's cut the bull here, Dawnie," the former rogue Slayer said firmly, as she looked back up. "I know who you want to be your first, and twenty gives ya ten so does most everybody else in this school; but it's not gonna happen. You'd have better prospects with the threesome! I mean, when's the last time you even heard from him?"

Dawn squirmed. "It's been over two months..."

The man in question was in fact the one and only Alexander LaVelle Harris. He who was the former Slayerette who had left town with his high school girlfriend Cordelia Chase, just a month after Buffy and the others had started college.

With a sigh, the former Key remembered back when the duo had initially moved out of Sunnydale...Willow had assured her that Xander would return to his real family after he came to his senses, and finally dumped that "brazen hussy".

But it was obvious now even to her – that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon.

"And what are you two talking about?"

The Slayer and the Key looked to the side of the mini-lunchroom, to see three teenage girls enter. The Slayers by the names of Kennedy, Vi, and Molly.

"Faith is trying to corrupt me," Dawn told her friends with a sigh, as they sat down.

"Big surprise," Kennedy smirked.

"Hey!" Faith yelled. "I'll have you know – uh, well, all I'm saying is Dawn just turned 18, so she should find some stud and live it up a little. You never know what might happen, these days."

"Well," Molly started to say, as she wiped the sweat from her face with the white towel around her neck. "I'm sure the two guys that watched us work out just now, would be more than in the mood for you to go over and say hi..."

"Yeah," Vi said, as she then turned to Kennedy who was sipping her energy drink. "And I can't believe you did that. Dropping your towel, so you'd have to bend over to pick it up and give them a good look?"

"Tell me about it!" Molly groaned. "What, Ken, did you get stuck in that position and have to wiggle your ass like that to get free?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Faith interrupted the teasing, before the smirking Kennedy could respond. "You were teasing the boys here? I thought you were only playing for the other team, already!"

The other dark-haired Slayer shrugged. "I've liked girls for as long as I can remember, but there have been a few guys that did look damn good. And you two," pointing to her workout partners, "have to admit that those new glasses that Johnny got, just makes him so damn cute..."

"So...glasses do it for you, eh Ken?" Faith grinned. "That why Red got herself a pair of 'reading' glasses?"

"Maybe," The Slayer who was Willow's lover said innocently, causing light laughter to erupt.

"Ah, oh," Vi said, as she looked down the long main walkway that went down to the building's main entrance. "Seems that Johnny might have a new target now, Dawn."

The four other girls looked, and frowned.

Two brunette girls – no, two women were walking down the path, and more than a few guys were staring at them.

One woman had on what looked like a very expensive white slacks and blouse, with a matching long white coat.

While the other woman was dressed in a skintight black top with black leather pants, and a matching black leather jacket. A pair of expensive aviator sunglasses topped off her ensemble – which was somehow sexy and dangerous, at the same time.

Their entire look screamed, 'don't piss us off'. Which of course seemed to attract two of the trainers who were at one of the gyms, Buffy and Willow.

The five girls just watched the two newcomers, while they moved as if they owned the place. It took them all a few seconds, before the party of five realized the black and white duo was headed right for them.

I wouldn't kick either one of 'em out of my bed, especially not her, Kennedy thought to herself dazedly, as she looked at the rapidly approaching woman in black leather. She was slightly surprised when the two stopped at their table, and looked down at them with intense gazes.

"Something we can help you with?" Faith demanded of them, not liking the scrutiny, as old habits died hard.

The woman in white seemed to ignore her, but the woman in black turned her gaze on the dark-haired Slayer. "Faith. I'm just wondering who you slept with, to get a spot here at Slayer prep school?"

Faith was up in bolt of anger at the insult. "Who the hell do you think you are, lady?!"

Buffy and Willow arrived next to Faith, and the blonde quickly put a hand on the former rogue Slayer's shoulder. "I'll handle this, Faith..."

When Faith stepped back, the woman in black laughed – and it was an ugly sound. "You have her all housetrained now, Buffy?"

"Who are you two?" the blonde asked with a frown.

"It's *so* nice to be remembered," the woman said with a snort. She then took off her sunglasses, to show her full face to Buffy, Willow and Faith. "Nice to see you three are still total fashion victims. But Dawn, at least, has a top on you can admire..."

"Cordelia!?"

"I guess you weren't wrong. Well, it's good to know old friends still have a special feeling in their hearts for you," the woman in white said with a smirk, as she spoke for the first time in a British accent.

"What right do you think you have to come *here*, you cheap whore!?" Willow snarled at her childhood nemesis. Stunned, Kennedy and the other two non-former Sunnydale girls looked to each other.

The same thought went through all three minds. Willow?

Face contorted with fury, Cordelia was about to fire back with a real zinger when a hand was put on her shoulder. "Remember why we're here..."

The former Queen C of Sunnydale High got a hard look in her eyes. "Trust me, I know *exactly* why we're here. Plus, I have no desire to spend any more time in the company of the redhead here than is absolutely necessary. Not when..." she choked off the rest of the sentence.

"He will be okay, Cordelia. That I promise you," the woman in white said comfortingly, but her look started getting hard as well.

"Cordelia, what is going on? Who is this woman?" Buffy demanded, having already completely dismissed her former classmate as nothing more than an annoyance from the past – one best left forgotten, at that.

"What's going on, Little Ms. 'Alpha Slayer'," Cordelia started in her best bitchy tone, "is that we're here to speak to Giles. Just tell us where he is, and you won't have to see us again."

The woman in black then snorted. "And if you must know – this is my cousin, Lara Croft."