Whatever It Takes: Part 2
by Tracy Girlie
Part Two - Friday

Xander retrieved his baggage and began to move through the airport terminal with some trepidation. He wanted to see Willow again so badly he could taste it. But he was terrified that he would say or do the wrong thing and lose her forever.

He felt the nervous butterflies of anticipation begin to rumble in his stomach as he searched the crowd. Cordy had said that she would pick him up at the airport, but he didn't know if Willow was going to come or not. He scanned the crowd collected at the gate, and smiled broadly when he saw Cordelia waving wildly. She was alone. That gave him time to find out what Willow knew about his visit before he saw her.

He rushed to meet Cordy and gathered her up in a hug as best he could with his bags in his hands. "Hey!"

She was talking animatedly into his shoulder as she hugged him. She lifted her head finally and smiled at him. "My car's this way." She grabbed his carry-on from his hand and reached for his arm, which she draped across her shoulders as she started walking. "I'm so glad you came. I've been worried about her." They talked for a few more minutes about the weather in Colorado and Boston. They covered the topics of the latest White House scandal and Xander's weight loss. Then they arrived at Cordy's car.

She and Xander quickly loaded his luggage into her trunk. "Does she know I'm coming?" he asked.

"No. I was afraid that if I told her, she'd go to Chicago with Jason. The reason she stayed was so that I wouldn't be alone on the holiday. If you were coming, I wouldn't be alone. Now, it's too late for her to go. He left this morning." They got in the car and Cordy started it up. She navigated into traffic carefully.

"So, what are we going to tell her?"

Cordelia smiled mischievously. She whipped out her cell phone and punched in a number rapidly. She smiled at Xander as she began to steer onto the highway. "Will? Cordy. You'll never guess who just called me on the cell phone." Pause. "No. Guess again. No. It was Xander! Yeah! He's at the airport. He flew in to surprise us on the holiday! I'm on my way to pick him up now. No, well, yes, you'd better put the underwear in the shower away. Okay, Will, listen, I'm almost at the airport now, so we should be there in about an hour. Okay. Okay. Bye." She hit the disconnect button on her phone and smiled at Xander triumphantly.

Xander was regarding her with an admiring smile. "Cordy, you are the most devious person I ever met. I love you. In a purely platonic kinda way," he rushed on. Cordy laughed at him. She pulled off an exit of the highway and headed for the parking lot of a small mall.

"What are we doing here?"

"We have some errands. Come on." She pulled him from the car and led him into the mall. Forty minutes later, he had flowers, and a small gift for each of the girls, hand picked by Cordy. She explained that no one showed up out of the blue empty-handed. So she selected a scarf for herself and a new mystery novel for Willow. They waited for the woman at the gift-wrap counter impatiently and then hurried back to the car.

As they neared the apartment, Xander began to get increasingly nervous. He realized that the trip to the mall was just as much a diversion to relax him as it was real errands. God bless Cordy. He had almost forgotten to be terrified of the outcome of this weekend. But now, in the car, knowing that Willow was just minutes away, he was beginning to feel anxious. And really warm. And a little sick to his stomach. He smiled nervously at Cordelia. "Uh, I just wanted to thank you, Cordy, for arranging all this."

She looked over at him as she pulled into her parking garage. She began driving to her assigned spot. "Xander, I want my best friend to be happy. And you could make her happy. Heck, I want you both to be happy. Who'd've thought that, huh? I don't want Willow to settle with Jason just because she's afraid of her feelings for you. It would be the biggest mistake of her life. She's just spent so many years repressing her love for you, that when you began to reciprocate, she felt threatened. And so she jumped back into the old pattern of repressing for safety. Believe me, Jason was a complication I never expected. But she could never be happy with him. Not like she could be with you." She pulled into a parking space and shut off the car.

Xander smiled at her. "Wow, those psych courses are really paying off."

Cordy reached into the backseat and lightly tapped her textbook. "It's not me. It's all in here."

They exited the car and began to retrieve Xander's bags from the trunk. "I just hope that she believes me this time. I don't know how I can go back if -"

Cordy laid a hand on Xander's arm and waited for him to meet her eyes. "She loves you, Xander. She's never stopped loving you. She's just confused right now. I won't let this weekend end without a full-blown passionate kiss between the two of you, believe me!"

Xander shared her laugh and they went to the elevator. His heart was on the line this weekend. He hoped it came out intact.

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