The next morning the doctor removed the neckbrace and Cordelia was discharged from the hospital. Despite Eleanor's improved health, both she and Malcom still needed a few more days in hospital to recover.
Violet, Grandma, and Grandpa all offered to drive Cordelia home and look after her and the house until Eleanor and Malcom were ready to come home.
They attempted to make conversation on the drive home, but quickly gave up when Cordelia gave short yes and no answers while clutching the oh shit handle so tightly her knuckles turned white.
When they pulled into the driveway, Cordelia didn't bother waiting till the car had come to a full stop, and unbuckled her seatbealt before jumping out of the vehicle.
No one said anything when she sat down in the middle of the driveway and held her knees to her chest but she did catch Violet and her grandmother exchange a look that said something along the lines of, 'She must've hit her head pretty hard.'
After a moment passed and Cordelia once again felt grounded, she got to her feet and let her family lead her inside.
She was immediately greeted by a cold house, and a meowing cat whom she scooped up into her arms despite his protests. She scratched her chin and soon she was a purring mess in Cordelia's arms.
The house looked exactly the same. Cordelia didn't know what she had been expecting but seeing the pictures on the wall, and the vase of hydrangeas, and the shoe rack took Cordelia by surprise. She wandered around the house and looked around as if she was seeing it for the first time, while cradling Buffy.
She noted that Buffy's bowls of food and water were full and briefly wondered who had been feeding her. Kendra? Violet?
She slowly made her way upstairs and dropped the cat when she pushed open the door to her room. She stood rooted to the spot and immediately knew someone had been in her room. No one but Cordelia would've noticed. Because there weren't any obvious signs of an intruder.
It was the details. Her bed was too far from the window. Her hairbrush was on the left side of the vanity. And her laptop wasn't closed.
It made her sound like a crazy person, but Cordelia wouldn't have pushed the bed, or set down her hair brush on the left side, or left her laptop open.
So maybe she was being a little paranoid but could you really blame her?
When her muscles finally obeyed her, she looked through the drawers and saw the clothes were all folded. Eleanor always scolded Cordelia for her messy, disorganized drawers.
Next she inspected her desk. The script for A Midsummer Night's Dream and her history homework was all in a neat pile, and her pencils and pens were all in the jar on her desk.
Finally she noticed her bed was made. She racked her brain trying to remember the last time she had slept in her own bed. It had been too long, but it felt even longer. So much had happened.
She had to remind herself that just last week she had been at Practical Magik with her best friends. She hadn't performed a spell. She had never fought with her parents or best friend. Kyle hadn't tried to kill her. She hadn't known she was a witch. Her entire family hadn't almost died. Which left her wondering how someone's life could change so drastically in a week. In seven days. In one hundred and sixty eight hours. In ten thousand eighty minutes. In six hundred and four thousand eight hundred seconds.
When she finally reminded herself why she had even started thinking about everything that had occured, she realised with much frustration she couldn't remember whether or not she had made her bed Sunday morning.
But she knew.
Which left the question of who would break into her house and look through her room without taking anything but taking the care to put everything back in it's place. Or what they thought was it's place.
And like alot of things in Cordelia's life, it all came back to the coven. The people trying to kill her.
Another look around the room and she felt nauseous. Those monsters had been in here. Touched her things. Looking for something. But for what? Her dirty little secret? Her kryptonite? Unfortunately for them Cordelia didn't have any dirty secrets nor did she have a kryptonite as far as she knew.
She felt a sudden urge to burn the place to the ground which made her wonder whether or not she could. But now wasn't the time or the place to find out.
But there was a place she could go. A place with answers. And good intentions...
But-Jesus. How was she supposed to show up on their doorstep -again- after having thrown them out of her room like that? All because well...they cared.
Or well Cal did. Kol seemed like he might hate her. Once upon a time Cordelia could have slept easily knowing she hadn't done anything to deserve Kol's distaste for her. But now that she knew she had been reincarnated? She could have killed him in another life. She could have stolen his favourite goat!
Yet another thing Cordelia needed to get informed about.
It was time for Cordelia to suck it up and pay the Sterlings a visit...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Cordelia got to the Sterling place she decided the three of them were past common courtesy and waltzed right in.
She had a brief thought that it was stupid to not at least lock the door, but reconsidered when she considered that if the brothers were capable of the stuff Cordelia had done, a lock must seem trivial.
She was pleased to see the brothers were already in the living room; Cal sprawled out on the couch with a Steven King novel, and Kol sitting on the piano bench plunking the keys. Neither noticed her which was honestly a little irritating seeing as she had imagined the whole scenario. (She'd waltz in dramatically without warning demanding answers while the brothers gaped at her)
"I want to know everything." Cordelia demanded quietly from the doorway. That got her the dramatic moment she'd been anticipating.
A short while later, after the obligatory, 'How are you? How are your parents? You look better.' conversation, Cordelia sat down across from the pair with a piping hot cup of tea warming her hands.
No one spoke. Cordelia waited for one of them to make an effort to start the long conversation that needed to be had, but when neither did she stepped up. "I want to know about this...coven. Who they are, why they're trying to kill me. I want to know about this whole reincarnation thing and what being a magical witch means since all I know comes from a book." She said without missing a beat before adding after second thought, "For starters."
That got Kol to show the barest hint of a smile, while Cal fidgeted with his fingers.
Kol seemed to realise he had seemed almost human for a second and quickly regained his cold composure.
"We don't know much about this coven." He admitted, "Only that they're a group of human Practitioners led by a Magical Witch taking advantage of them. We don't know how they found out about you or why they're targetting you. We only know they've been stalking you for weeks and that they've tried to kill you more times than you know..."
Cal felt the need to speak up and add, "Don't worry. We won't let anything happen to you or your parents." He said fiercely.
"Anything else." Cordelia corrected.
Kol cleared his throat, demonstrating yet another human feeling; discomfort.
"Right...well we think we should work out a schedule so you always have one of us around."
"You mean a shadow?" Cordelia asked.
"If that's what you want to call it...we have friends we could call and ask to help out...Cal can shadow you at school, I can shadow you at home."
Cal nodded in agreement as Kol spoke which made Cordelia get to her feet. "Wait what? I never agreed to this!"
Cal bit his lip and averted his eyes, but Kol didn't shy away from her gaze.
It dawned on her. "You've already started haven't you?"
Neither had the balls to answer.
"This is just...great. Just fucking great." She muttered before she had a thought. "Was it one of you who was in my room?"
They didn't even need to speak, the answer was all in their faces. First she saw alarm, then realization. "Cordelia neither of us ever went in your house without your permission." Cal assured her.
"A circle member must've been in there." Kol sighed, rubbing his temples.
"That was my first thought too. But they didn't take anything. I don't even know what they could've been looking for..."
At that something in Kol snapped and before she even saw him coming, he was kneeling in front of her gripping her shoulders.
"Cordelia this is very important: did you have anything magical in your house? A grimoir? An amulet? An athame?"
His sudden closeness and alarm made Cordelia hesitant. "I-" that hesitation perturbed Kol even more.
"Think!" He all but yelled at her, his thumbs digging into her flesh.
That's when Cal stepped in, and right in the nick of time. If he hadn't Cordelia might've done to him what she had done to Kyle. "Kol that's enough. You're scaring her." Cal said sternly gently prying him off of her.
Kol regained his sangfroid and gave Cordelia an apologetic nod before returning to his seat.
"I had a book of spells and a book about witchcraft..." Cordelia said finally.
The brothers visibly sighed in relief. "They'll be looking for notes in the margins, a spell you might have created." Cal explained.
"Well they won't find anything." Cordelia replied with a weak smile.
Kol nodded thoughtfully. "As for reincarnation and being a witch...that's harder to explain. You'll learn about it over time but I can tell you the basics."
That's where Cal interrupted, "The way reincarnation works is that in every lifetime you are essentially the same person. Your appearance varies, as do your talents and interests, and things like your upbringing have an effect on your personality but essentially you're the same person." Kol frowned in annoyance but kept his mouth shut.
Cal plowed on, ignoring his brothers sour face. "Reincarnated witches start regaining their powers and memories in adolescence. And like puberty, some get them earlier than others." And by others he meant Cordelia. So even when it came to magic she was a late bloomer. Great.
"Memories usually come in the form of vivid dreams and powers manifest themselves subconciously."
That explained the nightmares. And her powers popping up at random moments. Like when she thought of Nina falling into the pool and subconciously pushed her in.
Cordelia nodded thoughtfully, "So how long have you two known about me?"
"Ever since we moved here. We had had our memories and powers for a few years already and when Cal saw you at school he immediately recognised you." Kol answered.
"So we did know each other in past lives..."
Cal nodded, "In a few different lives. It's not uncommon for witches."
Cordelia nodded. She had a thought and a wide grin spread across her lips. "So when do we get started with Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
A/N: aggh it took so long to upload this chapter I apologize!
If anyone understood the reference at the end of thr chapter than shoutout to you!
I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter...I don't think it's bad but maybe not as a good as others? I dunno it's midnight right now and i'm exhausted.
If you liked this chapter please vote and comment, telling me your thoughts and reactions!
Have a lovely day,
~Liz