Shopping with the Dead

This is a fan-fiction series based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel characters and universe. The main characters in this story Joyce Summers, Tara and Cordelia. The story probably takes place sometime after Season 4 of Buffy during or a little after 2 of Angel. Although erotica is not the purpose of this story their maybe some and at least some of it will be of a homosexual verity. Thanks to the fine people at JOYFFA the best Joyce Summers fansite.

//This one's for the girls/Who've ever had a broken heart/Who've wished upon a shooting star/You're beautiful the way you are/This one's for the girls// (This one’s for the girls-Martina McBride)


//Your love is better than ice cream. . . . //( Ice Cream-Sarah McLachlan)

Shopping with the Dead
Cordelia, who was the last to survive, remembers every August when the wind blows just right, and the moonlight shines down through her window at just the right angle the summer after she moved to L.A. and started working for Angel. That summer Joyce Summers and Tara had come down from Sunnydale to L.A.
They came to shop, Buffy was supposed to go with Joyce. To have a mother-daughter thing over shoes and fashionable clothes in Las Angelis, but something had come up at the last minute and in the end Buffy couldn’t go and Joyce couldn’t find anyone to go instead. She’d finally called Willow out of desperation, partly because she knew Willow’s mother never took Willow shopping and partly because she had secretly looked forward to going to L.A. with someone younger, giving her an excuse to do the kinds of things she would not have done if her and one of her older friends on gone on the trip. Willow had been occupied with the same slayer-related crisis as Buffy, but Tara had answered in stead. Joyce liked the shy Wiccan. She still remembered thinking the first time she ever met Tara that the girl was one of the prettiest people Joyce have ever seen. She was so completely different from any of Buffy’s other friends with her shy smile and quiet manner, she seemed almost normal, in a way that made Joyce both instantly like and sympathies with her. Plus, and this part Joyce wouldn’t even admit to herself much less to anyone else, the fact that Tara was a lesbian made her seem exiting and slightly exotic. When Tara had answered and told her that Willow was busy and had gone over to Giles’, Joyce had been about to thank her and hang up but on a whim she had invited Tara to come along with her to Las Angelis. She had not expected Tara to except, but Tara had, enthusiastically, and the morning they had planned to leave she had turned up bright and early to help Joyce get ready. They planned to spend the weekend then come back. Joyce had already pre-rented the hotel room, at a good quality hotel, she had decided the weekend would give them enough time to shop and maybe go out during the evening.
As they drove she found she was excited. Excited to leaving Sunnydale and getting back to L.A., excited to have some time to pamper herself, and excited to be with Tara. They had talked a little about clothes and jewelry something Joyce quickly learned Tara knew very little about, a fact Joyce thought, she would have to remedy over the weekend. Instead of clothes she turned the conversation towards Wiccanism which she found Tara was more then happy to talk about, and which Joyce found more and more interesting as Tara got more into describing it. By the time they got to the hotel in L.A. Joyce knew the bases of Wiccan belief and Tara had heard all about Joyce’s struggle to open the art gallery after her divorce while raising two girls. They moved their stuff into the hotel room. Then at Joyce’s suggestion they hit the stores.
It was a couple hours later at the shoe store, when Joyce looked up from considering a very trendy pair of blue platforms she thought would look perfect on Tara, to see a flash of dark hair. She turned slightly and gazed at the young woman consider a very expensive pare of wine red pumps. Something about the girls tail yet elegant frame the way she turned her head, reminded her of someone. She finally put her finger on whom, at the exact moment the young woman looked up from the shoes and saw her. Cordelia Chase, smilingly advanced on Joyce and out stretched
“Mrs. Summers” She said taking Joyce hand and shaking it, in a much more friendly way then Joyce remembered “how lovely to see you, again. Shopping for shoes?” She looked down at the pair Joyce was still holding “good taste those are very popular this year. I’m sure Buffy will look great in them, or you for that mater.”
Joyce couldn’t help but smile. “actually their not for Buffy or me” she told the young woman “there for a friend” she saw Cordelia’s eye move beyond her and turned to see Tara had come up behind her from where she had been considering a pair much more conservative brown shoes. Joyce stretched out her hand to include the shy girl.
“Cordelia, this is Tara, Tara this is Cordelia Chase, she used to go to school with Buffy and Willow and Xander”
“back in the dark ages. Before I came L.A. to get into the show biz” Cordelia reached out and shook the blonds hand, looking her up and down. Tara blushed and stammered that it was nice to meet her.
“So” Cordelia continued, “Mrs. Summers told me she’s buying you those shoes, very nice, very trendy choice.”
Joyce held out the shoes for Tara to see.
“Oh no” Tara shook her head “I couldn’t. Not that there not beautiful, they are. But they’re too expansive and I can’t let you buy them for me.” she reached out to touch the shoes “I’ve never worn anything like this”
“Nonsense” Joyce told her “they are not too expensive. You deserve something pretty and half of the fun of going on these shopping trips is buying things for other people. Besides” she added “they’d look perfect on you”
Cordelia nodded in agreement “they’re just the right color and style for you. You’ll look beautiful in them.”
With the combined persuasive powers of Joyce and Cordelia at work Tara gave in and agreed to allow Joyce to buy her the shoes. Then Joyce and Cordelia were off and running. Joyce bought Cordelia the pair of pumps she had first been looking at and Joyce allowed Cordelia and Tara to convince her to buy a pare of sparkly silver platforms with laces that laced all the way up her legs like dancing shoes. She knew she would never wear them, but then didn’t everyone need at least one pair of shoes they bought just for fun and would probably never where and she could always give then to Buffy or Dawn later. Then they hit the clothing stores. Joyce learned that Cordelia had exquisite tastes in clothes and jewelry, and Tara was more then willing to try on what ever the two other women picked out for her, then parade back and forth in front of the dressing room area so the other two could see. They bought her more clothes then she’d ever been given at any one time, all in blues and greens and rust-gold that the other two agreed she looked the best in. Joyce bought Cordelia some lovely things in the latest style that showed off her elegant beauty and long legs. While Cordelia and Tara, somehow, talked Joyce, not only into trying on, but also purchasing some clothes she would never have considered buying since she was thirty. Both of them lavish her with praise about her good looks and as Cordelia put it, “great body.”
By the time the sun was going down all three of them where loaded down with bags and boxes that they dropped off at the hotel room before Joyce invited Cordelia to join her and Tara for dinner. She paid for the expansive restaurant, and over dinner Cordelia told them about how she had come to L.A. to make her career as an actress and met Angel instead. She had gotten all the way up to the part with the demon babies by the time they had worked their way through dinner and were onto dissert. Joyce marveled that a woman as young as Cordelia could go through so much and still remain as fun loving as this young lady seemed to be. Plus she reminded herself Tara used her magic to sometimes help Buffy with the vampire slaying business. Joyce began to feel as if she was the only one at the table who did not routinely have to deal with the paranormal in their day-to-day lives. Interestingly enough this made her feel closer the two girls, less like they where children and she was the adult and more like they where equals. In fact Joyce was in such a good mood that when Cordelia offered to show them a really great club after dinner she thought what could be the harm and said yes.