Recognition

"Cordy, a quick quibble."

Getting up from where she was sitting she looked down at Xander, "Yeah."

"Just going over my 'new' memories of Fred and ...uuuh, not your best class."

"What are you talking abou-" Cordelia blanched as she cast her mind back over her own 'new' memories of her time in 'new' Fred's class. "Oooh crap."

"Yeah." Xander got up from the floor. "Not, uh, you are not the, erm, best student in her class."

"But we were such good friends in that future!" Cordelia stomped a foot. "Actual friends! Not just rich bitches bound together by business partner fathers."

"Yeah. I know. But different time, different place."

"Damn." Cordelia frowned. "Damn, damn, damn! "

Xander pursed his lips. "Well, I, urm, or we" he waved to Cordelia and Anya, "could help her remember maybe?"

"Remember what?"

"The future that won't ever be."

Cordelia shuddered, "Nuh-uh. No way. I am not doing that to Fred. She went thru so much pain. What happened to her on Pylea broke her and it took so long for her to move past it." Cordelia stared at Xander as he smiled at her. "What are you smiling about doofus, I'm talking about my friends pain and you are getting your jollies off it?"

Xander fought down the smile, "Im just watching my girl friend be a good person defending her friend, like a good person would."

Cordelia huffed remembering her fears of five minutes ago, "W-well. Yeah. Fred doesnt deserve bad things happening to her. She's a better woman than I am. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Xander held up his hands in defeat. "Okay. Okay. So what if we did something that let Fred know about, without making her relive it, your shared future pasts. Maybe.... Okay, what if Fred has been having dreams about your life together. She'll have the experience but not the trauma. Like metaphysical deja vu."

Cordelia bit her lower lip anxiously. "Keep talking."

"We sculpt the memories before she has them. We edit out any of the really bad parts."

"Like her soul being eaten." Cordelia growled. "And the way all the boys spinelessly just went along with that thing puppeting her corpse afterwards."

"Right. We skip that," Xander put a comforting arm on her shoulder, "but we let all the good parts come thru. Good times together. Having fun, fighting monsters, saving the world."

"And then what?" Cordelia raised an imperious eyebrow.

"And then when you go up to her and say 'Hi, I'm Cordelia Chase and I think we could be friends' this new Fred will remember all the experiences of other Fred and be tempted into be friends. She'll recognize that you are a good person and worth being friends with, proir school preformance notwithstanding. "

Cordelia pursed her lips. "It could work." She sucked on her lower lip, "buuuut if Fred has a good life here and now I don't want to fuck it up."

"Right. Well... I know nothing about her personal life." Xander scratched his chin. "I, uh, I dont think anyone in the Scoob's outside of Willow has really interacted with her." Xander shrugged, "We can ask Wills what the new Fred is like."

Cordelia rolled her eyes, "Or, I wish we knew what this version of Fred has been threw that led her to being here in Sunnydale."