Angel had eventually wandered into the kitchen later that day, finally deciding to listen to Cordelia's advice. Despite not having eaten in a few days, she didn't have much of an appetite and she really didn't feel like socializing with anyone in the house so she simply grabbed an apple. She was about to head back upstairs when she heard agonized screaming coming from the greenhouse out back.
She raced outside, making her way towards the painful screams. She dropped her apple in shock once she took in the scene. Crouched down in front of the wooden table in the greenhouse was Cordelia, a bloody pair of shears in front of her.
"Miss Cordelia!" Angel exclaimed, racing over and kneeling beside the blonde. She placed her hands on the woman's wrists trying to pull Cordelia's hands away from her face but once she did, she wished she hadn't. Blood was leaking from both of Cordelia's eyes, the wounds clearly self-inflicted. And I thought I had a bad history with shears.
"Myrtle! Myrtle, come quick!" Angel shouted above Cordelia's cries. She wanted to help but she honestly didn't know what to do. "Shh, it's gonna be okay, Miss Cordelia." She looked around the room trying to find a clean cloth to place over the woman's eyes in an attempt to stop the bleeding. After no such luck, she simply pulled her shirt over her head and bunched it up, delicately placing it over Cordelia's eyes. She was careful not to apply too much pressure in fear of harming the woman further. "Miss Cordelia, why would you do this to yourself?" She asked, not really expecting a response. She just couldn't help but ask the question as it was burning on the tip of her tongue.
"I needed my sight back." She replied, her voice a hoarse whisper. "My visions, I..." She trailed off. Her hands were shaky as she grabbed onto the girl's forearms, supporting her weight as the pain was overwhelming, threatening to fully bring her to her knees.
Angel didn't understand what that meant. Cordelia had sight thanks to Myrtle. Now, after blinding herself she's wishing for her vision?
Finally, after her cries, Myrtle raced into the greenhouse. She gasped at the sight before her. "Oh, Delia! What have you done?! And where is your shirt, young one?" She asked, crouching beside the two.
"She blinded herself and there were no clean rags in here. I didn't want to leave her to go find one." Angel told the redhead, "Somethin' about needin' 'her sight back'?"
Myrtle sighed sadly and helped the older blonde up. "Lead her up to her room." She directed the young girl. "I'm going to make something quickly to help the healing process."
Angel nodded, "Come on, Miss Cordelia." She carefully led Cordelia out of the greenhouse and back into the academy. She made sure to take the staircase slowly, opening the woman's bedroom door once they made it to the top. She sat Cordelia on her bed and told her to remain there as she ran back out of the room, going to a nearby linen closet to find fresh towels. She grabbed a few and made her way back into the room, placing a few of them on a nearby chair before soaking a washcloth in water from the bathroom sink and heading back over to Cordelia's side.
"Move your hands, Miss Cordelia. I'm gonna to try and wipe the excess blood away." She told the woman, "I promise to be careful. Let me know if I'm hurtin' you."
Cordelia nodded and lowered the bloody shirt away from her eyes. Angel grimaced at the sight of her damaged eye sockets but put her disgust aside as she began wiping away the blood tracks that were running down her face. As she made her way closer to her eyes, she decided to use a dabbing motion instead of swiping- she knew that would hurt more. She flinched away when Angel applied too much pressure near her former blue eye; she apologized profusely but continued on, even more aware of her movement's near the blonde's grotesque eyes.
"Why are you helping me?" Cordelia suddenly asked.
"Because you need help?" Angel responded, not understanding why she was asking in the first place.
"No, I mean. Why are you helping after everything that's happened?" She asked again. "It was my ex-husband who shot you. And now, your sister is missing and I can't even begin to help you find her." Fiona's voice continued to echo in her mind. The words she spoke to her daughter were incredibly harmful and had struck deep into her heart.
Angel sighed, placing the bloody rag on the floor. She forced Cordelia to lay down and try to relax. Angel was surprised the witch was even conscious after all she had done to herself.
"Because, the shootin' wasn't your fault. Ya know this. And I'm guessin' the reason ya blinded yourself was to actually help me and the rest of the girls, Misty included." Angel explained, she placed a hand on her arm and gave it a soft squeeze. "You're a good woman, Miss Cordelia. You're selfless and ya care about others. Maybe even too much if these are the lengths you're willin' to go to to help out." She softly chuckled to herself before sighing sadly, "Ya tried to help me earlier and I just threw it back in your face and for that I'm sorry. I know ya helped me when I was injured. Now it's time for me to return the favor."
If Cordelia could cry she would. She didn't know Angel had felt that way about her and she was grateful to the young girl with her. She personally didn't feel as if she was worthy of anyone's help, especially from Angel. She felt as if she had failed the girls and the coven over and over again, that losing her vision was the only was to be helpful around here. All the recent events driving her to do something desperate in order to begin fixing things.
"Thank you, Angel. I promise, I'm going to do everything in my power to bring Misty back home to you." She spoke earnestly.
Angel shook her head in disbelief and scoffed out a laugh, "See? Even now, you're not concerned about your own wellbein'."
Myrtle had then entered the room, a small bowl in her hand, filled with the same mixture that was used on Angel's own wounds. The two worked together to carefully place the mixture around Cordelia's eyes. Once they were done, Myrtle casting an Analgesic spell. "What was that?" The young girl asked.
Myrtle smiled, "It's a spell to help with the pain, my dear. So Delia can rest comfortably and recover."
Angel nodded as the elder tried to lead the young witch out of the room so Cordelia could rest on her own but the blinded woman stopped her.
"I would like it if Angel could stay, actually." She requested.
"Really?" Angel asked.
"Yes, I don't think it's best if either of us are left alone. Don't you think so?"
Angel tried not to take offence to the comment, Cordelia wasn't trying to be mean. Angel wasn't sure if Cordelia could ever really be intentionally malicious. "Are you sure, Miss Cordelia?"
"Yes, I'm sure." She smiled.
Angel glanced back at Myrtle who nodded back at her and left the room, softly closing the door behind her departing figure. The young girl busied herself with tidying up the room, cleaning up the dirty towels and her bloody shirt, placing them in the sink to be taken care of later.
"You can grab a shirt from my closet." Cordelia spoke softly, her mind starting to drift off into sleep. "I have some sleep shirts placed in the back."
"Okay, thank you, Miss Cordelia." Angel replied, going into the woman's closet and finding the smallest sleeping shirt she could find. She found a black one and slipped it over her head, entering the room and making her way towards the unoccupied space on the bed. She sat back and tried to relax, keeping a close eye on the blonde beside her.
She was a little uncomfortable, she had only shared a bed with Misty before so this was new territory for her; she also wasn't entirely sure why Cordelia had asked to keep her company. Surely she didn't think the small blonde would do something bad to herself, right? Maybe Cordelia was starting to view Angel as the sister she never had? Maybe, it was just because this had been the first real human interaction she had had since Nan's funeral and the headmistress didn't wish for the girl to slip back into her near catatonic state. Or it simply could've been that the woman honestly didn't wish to be alone tonight. Whatever the reason, she wasn't going to ask.
"You don't have to call me 'Miss' all the time, you know." Cordelia whispered suddenly.
Angel slightly jumped in surprise, she thought the witch had fallen asleep by now. "It'll be a hard habit to break, but I'll try Miss- I mean, Cordelia." She chuckled, "Blegh, doesn't sound right." She whispered, shaking her head.
Cordelia gave a sleepy chuckle in response. It wasn't long after that, that the older blonde had finally fallen asleep. Angel wasn't sure if she was even going to be able to sleep after seeing what she did. She still couldn't wrap her head around why the headmistress would mutilate herself in such a manner. She knew Cordelia was a good-hearted woman but willfully blinding yourself for the sake of the coven? That took some dedication.
As her eyes began to slip shut against her will, she could hear the muffled conversation between Myrtle and Fiona. It didn't sound like it was going over well. She briefly panicked when she heard footsteps approaching outside the door. She figured Fiona would want to check on her daughter; but how would she feel to find a fellow student in the room with her? Would she somehow spin it to make it look like this was Angel's fault? Probably, she thought. The Supreme was conniving that way, always finding a way to harm the other witches of the coven.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the footsteps depart. She really didn't feel like speaking to Fiona. She never had a one-on-one conversation with the Supreme and tonight didn't seem like the night to do it. Finally feeling some semblance of peace, Angel took the opportunity to properly lay down and relax. Fortunately for her, her mind was silent in the moment and she focused on the steady breathing of Cordelia beside her. Within a few minutes, she found herself drifting off into a restless slumber.