Cordelia/Gunn Timeline
by hold_that_thought
This is a timeline of major events that directly affect Cordelia and Gunn, mostly jointly. One of the hardest things about writing an unconventional couple and keeping it at least somewhat near canon is figuring out when to set the story, so hopefully this will help.
*Note – This timeline assumes that the airdates correspond to the timeline dates. This may not always work, but it's the easiest way to keep things straight.
Season One
July 1999 (approx) – Cordelia arrives in Los Angeles.
October 1999 – Cordelia runs into Angel at a party, and shortly after becomes his Girl Friday. (City of...)
November 1999 – After Doyle dies, Cordelia receives the visions from The Powers That Be. (Parting Gifts)
May 2000 – Gunn first meets Angel, and shortly thereafter his sister is killed and turned into a vampire. A few weeks later, per Angel's request, Gunn looks over Cordelia and Wesley while they lay injured in the hospital after Wolfram and Hart's attack. (War Zone, To Shanshu In LA)
Season Two
September 2000 – Gunn and Cordelia meet for the first time while both parties are conscious. (Judgement)
Cordelia: It's nice to finally meet.
Gunn: I've seen you before.
Cordelia: Really? The Tan'n'screen commercials!
Gunn: I saw you in bed.
Cordelia: What?
Wesley: Ah, I can see this is none of my business...
Gunn: You, too.
Wesley: Now, just a moment!
Gunn: In the hospital - after Angel's building blew? He sent me there to keep an eye on you two.
Cordelia: Right.
October 2000 – Gunn and Cordelia have their first adventure together, when one of her visions sends her to rescue him from the demon Deevak. (First Impressions)
Cordelia: Deevak wasn't the danger my vision was warning me about.
Gunn: He wasn't?
Cordelia: No.
Gunn: Then what was?
Cordelia: I'm looking at it. It's you, Charles. You're the danger.
Gunn: Excuse me?
Cordelia: It's how you life your life. You don't just face danger, you create it. You're on a self destruct mission - unless you get some help.
Gunn laughs: I ain't buying none of this Dionne Warwick crap.
Cordelia: You know it's true. You need some serious saving. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.
Gunn: Oh, is that right?
Cordelia: Well, yeah. Better just plan on having me I your life for a while. At least until you find some peace.
January 2001 – After Angel fires them, Cordelia, Gunn, and Wesley take the demon-fighting into their own hands. (Redefinition)
Gunn: This thing nearly ripped us to shreds.
Cordelia: Yeah, but out of everybody here, which one of us is the dead one?
This doesn't always go well. (Blood Money)
Cordelia: Fun as it is having you guys over day and night, it's getting kind of late.
Wesley: It's only seven thirty.
Cordelia: Really? Oh. In that case: get out!
***
Wesley: We're not waiting for him to call. The man fired us. We're on our own now. Separate unit. Fighting the good fight.
Gunn: Yeah, right! With no plan, or office, or business cards of our own.
February 2001 – Angel Investigations 2.0 finally gets their own office. (Happy Anniversary)
Cordelia: There. See? We'll work without the harsh glare of flourescents, or all that distracting computer information.
Gunn: Cordelia - stop trying.
Cordelia: Really?
Wesley: Join us.
(Cordelia sits down beside Gunn with a sigh.)
Wesley: Sometimes you need to wallow. Just let the depression settle in - silently.
Later, Cordelia, Gunn, and Wesley defend Gunn's old crew and friends from renegade zombie cops, getting Wesley shot in the process. (Thin Dead Line)
Still later, Angel has an "epiphany" and re-joins Angel investigations, just as Wesley and Gunn are trying to save Cordelia from being impregnated with Skilosh demon spawn. (Epiphany)
Gunn: Where's Cordy?
Wesley: We don't know. Not here.
Gunn: You checked her pad?
Angel: I stopped by there earlier.
Gunn: You enjoying your visit to nineteen seventy three? I meant her message pad.
May 2001 – Gunn, Wes, Angel, and Lorne take off to Pylea to recue Cordelia. Fred joins them and ends up returning home with them. (Over the Rainbow)
Season Three
June to September 2001 – Gunn, Cordelia, and Wesley are left to run AI themselves as Angel goes to Tibet to work through his Buffy-related grief. (Heartthrob)
Wesley: It isn't a vacation. It's a spiritual retreat at a monastery.
Gunn: Hmm. Angel and a bunch of monks in the middle of nowhere. There's a party! He should have got hammered and went to Vegas just like I told him.
***
Cordelia: So, I hope you had a good retreat, all peaceful and meditate-y.
Angel: Sure, until the monks turned out to be life-sucking Shur-hod demons.
Wesley: Oh...
Gunn: Vegas.
January 2002 – In an alternate reality, Moviestar!Cordelia meets Gunn for the first time. In order to keep her visions but return to "normal" reality, Cordelia becomes part demon. (Birthday)
Gunn: Man, Wes told me he knew you, but I didn't believe him.
Cordelia: Yeah, we go way back. Back to, um, when - you had two arms, which, by the way...
Wes: Ah, Kungai demon a couple of years ago.
Gunn: Hey, is it true that you and Wes were... You know, that you had a little...
Cordelia: ...humiliating kiss where he drooled all over my chin? (Gunn looks from Wes to Cordelia) Yeah. But I worked *really* hard to repress it.
February 2002 – Gunn begins dating Fred and Cordelia begins dating Groo. (Couplet)
March 2002 – Angel sends Cordelia and Groo away on vacation, and Angel's son Connor is first kidnapped by Wesley, then Holtz, who escapes with him into the hell dimension of Quortoth. (Sleep Tight)
April 2002 – Cordelia returns from vacation, and Gunn almost loses his soul that he bartered for his truck in 1995. (For those doing the math at home, this makes Gunn 24 in Season 3, while Cordelia was 21. When the series ended, they were 26 and 23.) (Double or Nothing)
Gunn: I was seventeen years old and I sold my soul for a truck.
Fred: Not this truck?
Gunn: Don't go dissin' my girl.
Fred: Oh, Charles. Your soul wasn't worth air conditioning?
Gunn: Look, back in the day this truck kept me alive. Helped me save other lives too. I know it sounds dumb, but a soul didn't seem like such a big deal. Didn't think I had a future then. Now I do.
May 2002 - Groo breaks up with Cordelia because he feels she's in love with Angel. But before she and Angel can discuss this, Cordelia is whisked off to a higher dimension. (Tomorrow)
Skip: You're a great warrior, Cordelia. The battle that we're all a part of is fought on many different planes and dimensions. You've outgrown this one. You've become - a higher being.
Season Four
October 2002 - Cordelia returns to Earth, having no memory of her time on the other dimension or even her life before that. (Slouching Towards Bethlehem)
November 2002 - Gunn murders Professor Seidel, Fred's old mentor and the man who sent her to Pylea, to keep Fred from committing the murder herself. Their relationship is never quite the same. (Supersymetry)
Later, Cordelia recovers her memory, confirms that she and Angel were in love, then sleeps with Connor. (Spin the Bottle, Apocalypse Nowish)
April 2003 - It's revealed that Cordelia has been acting under the influence of a higher being that hijacked her body. It maneuvered her into sleeping with Connor so it could give birth to itself as Jasmine. (Inside Out)
With the birth of Jasmine, Cordelia falls into a coma. The AI gang and most of Los Angeles falls under Jasmine's spell, but they eventually defeat her and go on to take Wolfram and Hart's offer to take over the L.A. branch of their offices. (Shiny Happy People through Home)
Season Five
October 2003 - As part of his new job at Wolfram and Hart, Gunn agrees to a brain upgrade. (Conviction)
Eve: It's very simple, really. Charles agreed to let us enhance his mind with a comprehensive knowledge of the law.
***
Gunn: They didn't evil me up. All I got stuck in my head was the law. And for some reason, a messload of Gilbert and Sullivan.
February 2004 - Cordelia returns to help the AI gang one last time before going gently into that good night. (You're Welcome)
Cordelia: Oh, my God. Gunn? You have hair.
Gunn: Oh - ha - yeah. What did you think? I was prematurely bald? (Cordelia says nothing) I wasn't.
May 2004 - In an effort to take down The Circle of the Black Thorn, Gunn takes on the demon Senator Brucker and her demon army while the other AI members attend to other Circleites. Gunn is last seen in the alley behind the Hyperion, facing down a demon army unleashed by Wolfram and Hart. (Not Fade Away)
Gunn: OK. You take the 30,000 on the left...
Illyria: You're fading. You'll last 10 minutes at best.
Gunn: Then let's make 'em memorable.
