stumbling on their last mile, in a self inflicted exhile

Cordelia Chase was nothing if not adaptable. Even if she tended to complain while doing it.

When the Powers said she had another path to take, she didn’t think it was a literal other path. After leaving Angel in his office at Wolfram and Hart, Cordelia assumed that she was heading off to that other plane of existence, destined to be bored for the rest of her afterlife, but she was stunned to find that there were other plans in mind for her. They didn’t feel like sharing that plan either, which was even more annoying. She figured that after everything she sacrificed and lost for the ‘Grand Plan’ that she would be let in on the plan a bit, but she knew that it was there way of protecting free will. If she wanted to know what was happening, she needed to figure it out on her own and choose to be a part of it. Or, she could consider this a vacation from her life of fighting evil and just be a normal girl.

Being normal had never really been something that worked for her.

She was dumped at a roadside diner somewhere off I70, with a whole lot of confusion, and nothing but the clothes on her back and all of five cents to her name. She was lucky in the fact that the diner owner was sympathetic to her unfortunate plight and was willing to offer her a job and board until she got on her feet. Five years later, Cordelia was still at that same diner, working for a reason she couldn’t really explain. She knew that the Powers had dumped her there for a reason. Even though she wasn’t really sure of the hows and whys, she was pretty sure that it would come to her eventually. She just needed to figure out when. So she donned her apron and went to work every day. And for the most part, it was almost … nice.

It had been so long since she had a real job with steady income, that she had almost forgotten how nice it was to actually be normal. She was sure that parts of it were still overrated, but she had a real life again. She had passed the visions to Angel when she kissed him, so there were no more loud, painful signals from the Powers that Be. No more demons, no more vampires—Cordelia was just a regular girl, with a regular job, in a small little town off a normal highway. Sure there was the occasional nightmare, and the odd case of déjà vu, but for the most part, she had left her old life behind. The life she was building now may have been less exciting, but it was a life.

Still. There was that déjà vu. And when the déjà vu was connected to that customer sitting at her back corner booth, she didn’t have it in her to just leave it alone. She picked up her strongest pot of coffee, before making her way to the back to start to try and figure him out. He had already ordered his food, and since they had a slow period, now was the chance for a little small talk. She swayed her way over, and held up the pot to try and get his attention.

“Can I top you off?”