BtVS fic: The More Things Change 2/2
Disclaimers etc. in part 1 . . .
Part 3
Buffy was silently cursing her bad luck again as she stood before the door to Angel's apartment building. She had come back to her dorm, only to discover that one of her contacts had left her a message on the voice mail she had gotten expressly for that purpose. She had wanted to leave to meet him immediately, but had gotten held up by her very drunk roomie, recently returned from a frat party, who turned out to be a lesbian with a thing for meek bookish types.
She had fled the scene after being forced to dump a glass of three day old Coke all over Jessica to get her to go away. Things had not gotten better, as she was accosted by four vampires, one after another, on the way to her contact's preferred meeting place, the sewer entrance at Wilstead and Humber. The vampires were not working together, but they did slow her down enough that she missed her contact, who would only wait in one place for so long in this town, which meant chasing him through the sewers, ruining the third pair of boots this trip.
When she caught up with him, she found out that he was friends with one of the parents of the missing children. The parent was a warlock who had used a spell to recreate the scene of the kidnapping. The kidnappers were a race of demon he had never seen before. Buffy was provided with a sketch, and then had to fight her way past a small crowd of Eeponomos demons. Literally `sewer' demons. The damned things bathed in the sewer water, and Buffy had to fight them. Which meant, once they got too close for her to shoot them effectively, she had to touch them.
She had already burned the clothes she had been wearing, but hadn't had the time for a really long, hot, shower to get the last of the ick off herself. Just a quick one so she didn't look like a sewer demon herself. She was wearing the first clothes that had come to hand back at the dorm, which were a purple and pink plaid t-shirt that Laurie's second youngest had gotten Buffy for her birthday, and the dark green leather pants she had bought to match the halter top with all the Celtic knotwork on it.
With that, she was wearing moccasins, another gift, this time from some Huron Native North American Aboriginal Great Lake Peoples, she had rescued from a demonic millionaire wanting to take their land for an amusement park. She was going to go in to see Angel looking like a blind stinky freak to ask for help in identifying and defeating the demons that had taken all those children. The crowning glory of the moment was that she was going to have to explain herself to him. Why did the gods hate her so much?
She got her nerve up enough finally to buzz his apartment.
His voice immediately crackled over the speaker, "Yes?"
"Uh, Professor Byrne? You said I could come over to discuss my essay topic. It's Beth Winters," Buffy was fully as nervous as she sounded. Not only was this going to draw all kinds of unwanted attention to herself, she now had to face Angel.
There was a pause, and when the speaker came on again, Buffy clearly heard Xander's voice in the background, "But you said you weren't assigning any essays-" he was apparently forcibly hushed to judge from the "Ow!" that was shouted over Angel's response.
"Sure, come in." It was with a sinking feeling that Buffy made her way up the stairs to Angel's front door.
***
When he opened the front door, Angel was struck by how beautiful she looked, nervous and clearly with the faint whiff of sewer still on her she was still the most stunning sight he had ever seen. Auburn was a good look for her. "Come in," he said, stepping back to let her in. "Now why are you really here, Buffy?" he asked once the door was closed.
She took a deep breath, "I need help. I work for the FBI and-"
"We know that Buffy," Willow interrupted, "What I want to know is what you think you're doing waltzing into town after being gone for ten years and then just expecting our help."
Buffy flinched at Willow's words and responded, "I was assigned to this case because I knew Sunnydale, and I'm asking for your help because none of my resources can identify these." With that, Buffy presented the sketch to the woman who was once her best friend. "I don't expect you to help me. I'm asking you to help the fifty children they've kidnapped over the past year or so."
"Then what? You'll just take off and we won't hear from you again until the next time you can't handle something?" Xander asked bitterly.
Angel wanted to interrupt the two, but he was also somewhat bitter about the vanishing act ten years earlier. He wanted to know why she had never contacted any of them, hadn't contacted him when she had said she loved him. So he watched. Her response to Xander's question surprised all of them.
"How about we get Giles and Ms Calendar and anyone else you guys think I owe an explanation to, and I'll tell you what happened." Buffy looked each of them in the eye adding, "I think it'll be less complicated for everyone if I only tell my story once, and you guys don't repeat the same questions."
It was agreed, and Giles arrived with Jenny in tow shortly thereafter. Everyone got settled, and then Xander demanded again,"So? Why did you leave?"
Buffy gave a chuckle, "In a way Willow, it was your fault," she shook her head at the other's indignation, "I'm not saying you drove me away or anything. You guys remember that really slimy demon Angel and I killed down at the beach? The one about . . . oh a month before I left? The picture Willow took of me wearing Angel's shirt and Angel shirtless had my Mom thinking I slept with Angel." Buffy smiled in amused remembrance.
"She completely freaked. The next thing I knew, I was sent to boarding school in Washington. I was supposed to spend the weekends with Dad," her voice developed a certain angry quality, in spite of the sadness, "But that was too much effort for him, so I spent the next year and a half living in the dorm."
Giles frowned and said, "Well that does explain why you left without so much as a word, but what possible reason did you have for not contacting us?" The accusation in his eyes was too much for her to take, and Buffy started to look at the floor as her narrative continued.
"The thing is, Mom and Dad told the principal about the `bad influences' in my life. They didn't want me to see any of you again-"
Willow interrupted again, "So you just listened to them?! We were your friends Buffy! You just dropped us `cause you wanted-"
"I was under lock and key every moment I wasn't in direct supervision by one of the faculty members!" Buffy shouted in response, "They deliberately made certain my roommate was the biggest snitch in the school! For a year and a half I wasn't alone for a minute! I wasn't allowed off the school grounds." She finished softly remembering nearly two years of a life not dissimilar to prison.
"A computer was specifically disconnected from the internet for my use to hand in papers, and the teachers made just enough of my bad reputation that no one would do me the favour of mailing you guys a letter." Tears began to roll down her face as the sheer grief and loneliness of that time came back to her.
Angel watched Buffy crying and couldn't help himself. He moved from his seat by the window onto the couch, and wrapped his arms around her. He felt her stiffen briefly, then she began to sob in earnest. Giles looked torn between joining Angel in comforting the slayer who was once his charge, and staying where he was. The others merely looked taken aback, but they didn't speak or interfere, and by the time Buffy had regained some self possession, Willow and Jenny were looking distinctly sympathetic.
With his arm still firmly wrapped around her, and secretly enjoying the close contact, Angel hesitantly asked, "But what about after high school? I mean, by then you could have come back, your parents wouldn't have had any hold on you."
Buffy gave a bitter chuckle, "Oh I would've," that same grim laughter, "But I was so loopy after a year and a half of being shunned, that Dad got me put into an institution to `help me past this transition period to normalcy'." She shuddered, then said, "I was there for another two years."
By then, even Xander couldn't maintain his anger. Suddenly the couch was very crowded with Willow and Xander having joined Angel in a group hug. There were a lot of apologies offered, and Giles and Jenny even stepped over to give Buffy an embrace. Anya, not knowing Buffy in the slightest held back as long as she could, but finally couldn't wait any more. "So? That still leaves six and a half years when you could've called."
Abruptly Buffy flushed and looked at the floor, "That really was my fault. You see, when I finally got out, and decided to become an FBI agent, I just didn't know what I was going to say to you guys." She looked truly pathetic as she gazed at her friends, "I mean, here I'd vanished without a trace years before, what was I gonna say? `Oh hi, remember me? I was your friend but I disappeared. Now I'm back!'?" she shrugged, "I had no self esteem, and by the time I had really pulled myself together enough to come back, it really was too late to just reappear in your lives. I figured better to just let it be."
Xander broke into her introspection, "Okay, enough of that. Why did you become an FBI agent? Do you work on the X-Files? Can you get me a tax break?"
With that the tension broke, and ten years of gossip, tales of adventures, and occult insanity were exchanged. Willow's adventures in relationships, "Wills! You dated a girl?" Buffy's life in the FBI, "No way Buffs! You get to claim your broadsword collection as part of your tax deductions?", Giles and Jenny's wedding, ". . . So anyways, there was Xander, giving a toast to the happy couple, and he actually told that story about that chair woman incident!" Giles' response, "Yes, and I was never so embarrassed in my life."
After Xander's joke though, Buffy moved away from Angel, and didn't go near him again for the rest of the evening.
*******************
The party broke up somewhere around four in the morning, and everyone left to go home, promising to meet the next afternoon to research Buffy's demons. Angel was left alone in his apartment wondering whether Buffy still cared about him at all. She'd leaned into him readily enough when she'd broken down, but the moment she realised she was leaning against him Buffy had leaped to her feet and had kept a considerable distance between the two of them all evening. He was also the only one she hadn't had a private word with.
The only conclusion he could draw was that she'd not only gotten over him, but she'd realised how insane a relationship between the two of them could be. He was, after all, her professor, and she probably had a boyfriend. Why else would she own that nightgown?
Angel went to bed and slept fitfully, his dreams full of Buffy declaring undying love to a faceless man while dressed in nothing but a thong and strapless bra.
***
Buffy lay in bed and went over every moment of the evening to catch any hint at all Angel was still interested in her. She had made a complete ass of herself collapsing and sobbing all over him like the buffle brained heroine of a Harlequin romance, and had gotten away from him to compose herself as soon as she had realised it. He hadn't gone near her again, despite all the hints she had thrown his way.
Maybe he had a girlfriend now. The others all had someone, which would make Buffy the pathetic dateless loser. Just like she had been in high school. Angel had probably gotten over her schoolgirl crush and found himself a woman who knew what she was doing. How could he not? He was handsome, smart, a university professor, and sexy as all hell. He would have no trouble finding himself a girlfriend.
Buffy curled up and tried not to cry as she imagined him in bed with some gorgeous exotic female, laughing over his early romantic follies like the small blonde slayer who had tears running down her cheeks despite her best efforts to stop them.
*********************
The following afternoon they all gathered at the Magic Box and began to search for any clues as to what Buffy's demons were up to, and how to stop them. Things were a little awkward at first, but soon the old camaraderie of those earlier days in the Sunnydale High School library came back. Giles, Angel, Willow and Jenny all worked diligently, while Xander and Buffy alternated between going for snacks and trying to look busy. Anya counted money and didn't bother pretending.
Buffy frequently shot sidelong glances at Angel, not wanting to be caught staring at him, but unable to help herself. He just looked so handsome sitting in the pool of sunlight coming in through the window. She was also trying to decide whether the ring he was wearing was an engagement ring or not.
***
Angel was engaged in a similar pursuit. He kept checking to see if Buffy had any jewellry that would indicate whether she was affianced to anyone, and was immensely relived that she didn't appear to be. She also looked so beautiful in the hip hugging blue jeans and low cut t-shirt. He shifted uncomfortably, then stood declaring he was going to take a break.
He headed for the back, which served as a training room for the gang, as well as a place to put the fridge. He got a bottle of water out, and gulped it down in an attempt to get himself under control. He jumped in surprise when he heard Buffy speak. "It's really nice in here," she said, "I mean, the training centre for the FBI doesn't have anywhere I can practice with a crossbow."
Angel turned around, noticing how natural she looked in the room and forced a chuckle out, "Yeah, well I don't think that crossbows are really part of the up-to-date agent's arsenal."
"True," she smiled, "Wanna go a round?"
He gulped, "What?" surely she didn't mean . . .
"Spar? With me?" she asked.
Angel looked at her, glanced at the door and calculated escape routes. Then he decided to be reckless, "Why not?" he replied, grinning.
They took off their shoes, and headed onto the mat. The room was silent as the two sized each other up for a moment. Then Buffy made the first move. The kick could have seriously hurt him if he hadn't seen it coming. He blocked it and responded with a punch that she simply dodged and returned.
Soon they had both entered the flow of battle. All thoughts of lost love, crushes, inadequacy and lust had gone, and all there was, was the kicks, punches and blocks. Suddenly, Buffy dropped and kicked his feet out from under him, and Angel just barely managed to tangle her feet up in his own as he fell. When they hit the mat together, Angel rolled them so that he had her pinned beneath him.
Abruptly both were aware of the intimacy of their position, each panting, both sweaty, their faces mere inches apart. They leaned closer and closer together, and just as their lips were about to brush-
Xander shouted ecstatically from the other room, "Woo-hoo! I got `em!"
Immediately the couple broke apart and scrambled to opposite sides of the room to put their shoes back on, then headed out to see what had happened.
It turned out that the demons Buffy was tracking were called Diebeunschuld, or `thieves of innocence'. They relied on the children they took once every hundred years to make themselves invulnerable.
It was only during a brief window during the ceremony, in which they killed the children in typically ritualistic style, that they could be killed. The symbol found at so many sites was caused by a transportation spell, marking the place where the portal had been. With some further research, they figured out that the rite was going to take place the next evening at the local elementary school. Unfortunately, there was little they could do to prepare other than arm themselves to the teeth, which meant Buffy had to go to class to maintain appearances. Angel's class.
So, she sat at her usual seat, and listened to Angel lecture about the effects of electrical light on the social lives of people in Europe. The lack of sleep from the past two nights caught up with her, and she fell asleep.
Standing at the front of the room, Angel noticed Buffy slump over, and hoped that she woke up rested, and didn't force him to have to wake her up. When she smiled, he wondered whether she was dreaming about her boyfriend. Odd she hadn't mentioned him yet.
Part 4
Buffy found herself wandering through Sunnydale as it was ten years before. She knew she was being followed, but the thought didn't alarm her. In fact, it made her feel safe. As she reached 1630 Revello, and climbed up to her window, she slipped and would have fallen if it weren't for the cool hands that caught her, and then wrapped themselves around her waist. Suddenly Buffy was perched in the tree, the owner of those hands still holding her, and gently caressing her through the thin material of her shirt. He leaned down, and kissed her, and Buffy tasted the familiar flavour of toothpaste and Angel, with the slightest hint of blood.
Somehow, the transition was made to her room and Buffy was lying on her bed, her clothes and his miraculously having disappeared. They were still kissing, and his weight settled over her, so perfectly, so right, she wondered how she could ever give it up. His hands were all over her, and they both kissed as though neither could get enough of the other.
Suddenly, his hips shifted, and he was so close to-
Waking her up as she realised she had slept through the class and everyone leaving. Angel smiled at her, and Buffy wondered how he would react if she kissed him right then. He'd probably gently pull me off and tell me he's sorry for leading me on, but he has a girlfriend. Or boyfriend, Buffy thought grumpily. "I'm up," she declared, firmly putting a smile on her face.
Angel looked at her smiling face, and wished she were smiling because of him, not whoever was in her dream. "Sleep well?" he inquired.
"Yeah. Weird dreams though," Buffy replied, as they made their way out of class and down to Angel's car. "So, you're human. How'd that happen?" Buffy asked.
Angel told her about Spike's hunt for the ring, and how they had managed to trick him into wearing a fake and burning up in the sun. He told her about the spell Willow had found buried along with the rest of the treasure and the Gem of Amara in Giles' private collection. They talked about the demons each had faced, and how they had beaten them. The conversation lasted right to the door of the Magic Box.
Oz had returned from his latest tour, and after a positively adorable reunion with Willow, had offered the use of his new van to transport the gang and their weapons to the school. They spent the afternoon packing the vehicle and organising themselves into groups and determining strategy.
At sunset they piled into the van and drove off. As they walked into the school, the sound of chanting and crying children lead them directly to the ritual. The large numbers of both demons and children were in the gym. Alongside them were a large number of humans who were participating in the sacrifice for the same reward the demons sought.
One of the Diebeunschuld strode over to the whimpering children and pulled a small boy out of the group, and yanking a knife out if his belt, began to move to slit the child's throat. As Angel fumbled to get the crossbow into position to shoot the monster, knowing he couldn't do it in time, Buffy simply yanked her gun out of her back pocket and shot the Diebeunschuld, causing it to simultaneously drop the boy and die.
As the Scoobies moved to enter the battle, Giles muttered, "I see we have progressed past the crossbow."
"No kidding," Angel said, as he sliced the head off of a demon with his axe.
Ultimately, the battle was almost an anticlimax, as the Diebeunschuld were pathetically easy to kill when they weren't invulnerable. Centuries of being unkillable had left them with absolutely no survival skills, and the Scooby gang were able to take them out with ease.
Buffy was also overjoyed at the presence of enough humans to constitute a cult, and once the demons were disposed of, and her friends out of the way, she called in the FBI backup that had been waiting just out of town for her call. They rounded up the escaped cult members with ease, and the children were immediately put on planes to go back to their parents.
Buffy left for Washington, and got very deeply involved in the wrap up of the case, and explaining to the warlock what had really happened to his daughter. Buffy wrote her friends regularly, telling them how things were going, and about her life, and Laurie the Anomovic's baby boy, who had been christened Gerald Andrew Hartaneekarn Smith. The third name was for his grandfather. Buffy's friends back in Sunnydale were all ecstatic at having regular contact with Buffy, and as the months passed they all settled back into the close friendships they had all shared before. All except Angel, that is.
He was happy to be getting letters from her, and he wrote back just as frequently. They had become quite close over the months, and shared things with each other that neither could share with anyone else. His problem was that he wanted more. He wanted Buffy there in Sunnydale, and he wanted her to be in love with him.
Unfortunately every letter he received from her made it quite clear she thought of him as no more than a close friend. He stopped dating though, feeling it was unfair to string a woman along when all he could give her was a one night stand of meaningless sex. He didn't want Buffy to hear about it and be disappointed in him either.
Eventually the others stopped trying to get him to go out trolling for dates. So he was surprised when Anya insisted he join them all at the Bronze one evening. It had become the prime spot for all the people in their late twenties and early thirties after a new club on the good side of town was opened. That happened after the fourth time the Bronze was completely wrecked in `gang attacks', and parents got upset enough to demand something for their kids in a safer neighbourhood. The people who had grown up with the Bronze had continued to go there, so it had aged a little.
He arrived there, and was stopped in the doorway by the sight of Buffy in a dress so short it was virtually indecent, dancing to some pop song that was little more than a request for sex by the singer. He finally moved forward when someone shoved him, none too gently, away from the door he was blocking.
She turned, and her eyes landed on him immediately. She smiled, and began to mouth the words of the song at him. Angel swallowed hard, and found his feet moving him to her side, unbidden.The moment he came within arm's length of her, she stepped up to him, and wrapped herself around him. When the song ended, the DJ said, "Okay folks! I have a request here, from Buffy to Angel! Cibo Matto's `Sugar Water'!"
For a moment Angel couldn't quite remember why the music seemed so familiar. Then Buffy stepped back and began to dance around him. Her hips swaying to the music, her eyes darkening with promises he spent his nights dreaming of, Buffy seductively moved around him in a way he had only seen once. Ten years earlier, she had tried to drive him insane with jealousy by dancing with Xander. Tonight, that same dance that could pass as foreplay, was being done for him. Angel began to move with her asking, "What are you doing?"
"Something I should have done ten years ago," Buffy responded with a smile.
He nearly combusted on the spot. "Buffy, we really shouldn't-"
"Quiet," she ordered him, "Anya and I talked. Neither of us is seeing anyone, and I know I love you, and Anya says that you're still in love with me," she fixed a glare on him, even as her body continued its torturous movements, "There is no reason for us not to do this."
Angel just stared at her. She wasn't seeing anyone? He had spent all this time certain she no longer cared for him like that, and she still loved him? Apparently something in his expression made her nervous, because she stilled, and said, "Unless Anya was wrong about you loving me." The sudden fear in her voice, and on her face spurred him.
"I do. I love you," he took a deep breath, "I thought you had a boyfriend. I saw you in your lingerie, and I still can't think of any reason why you'd own that, unless you had a boyfriend."
She rolled her eyes, "It was a gag gift from my coworkers for `the eternal spinster'." There was a pause, during which both chuckled and began to move again, when Buffy stiffened slightly and frowned up at him, "You saw me? You were spying on me in my room?"
"Uhhh. Well, I was hoping to see-"
"Me in my underwear?" Buffy said with a raised eyebrow.
"No!" The brow eased higher and Angel realised his faux pas. "I mean, not that I wouldn't want . . . That is I . . ." he trailed off on seeing her snicker, "I can't possibly answer that one right, can I?"
"Nope," replied Buffy cheerily, "Maybe you should take me home where you won't have to talk." She smiled at him, and wiggled her hips suggestively. A grin broke out on his face, and the two virtually sprinted for the door. They had ten years to catch up on after all.
The End
Part 1
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Part 3
Buffy was silently cursing her bad luck again as she stood before the door to Angel's apartment building. She had come back to her dorm, only to discover that one of her contacts had left her a message on the voice mail she had gotten expressly for that purpose. She had wanted to leave to meet him immediately, but had gotten held up by her very drunk roomie, recently returned from a frat party, who turned out to be a lesbian with a thing for meek bookish types.
She had fled the scene after being forced to dump a glass of three day old Coke all over Jessica to get her to go away. Things had not gotten better, as she was accosted by four vampires, one after another, on the way to her contact's preferred meeting place, the sewer entrance at Wilstead and Humber. The vampires were not working together, but they did slow her down enough that she missed her contact, who would only wait in one place for so long in this town, which meant chasing him through the sewers, ruining the third pair of boots this trip.
When she caught up with him, she found out that he was friends with one of the parents of the missing children. The parent was a warlock who had used a spell to recreate the scene of the kidnapping. The kidnappers were a race of demon he had never seen before. Buffy was provided with a sketch, and then had to fight her way past a small crowd of Eeponomos demons. Literally `sewer' demons. The damned things bathed in the sewer water, and Buffy had to fight them. Which meant, once they got too close for her to shoot them effectively, she had to touch them.
She had already burned the clothes she had been wearing, but hadn't had the time for a really long, hot, shower to get the last of the ick off herself. Just a quick one so she didn't look like a sewer demon herself. She was wearing the first clothes that had come to hand back at the dorm, which were a purple and pink plaid t-shirt that Laurie's second youngest had gotten Buffy for her birthday, and the dark green leather pants she had bought to match the halter top with all the Celtic knotwork on it.
With that, she was wearing moccasins, another gift, this time from some Huron Native North American Aboriginal Great Lake Peoples, she had rescued from a demonic millionaire wanting to take their land for an amusement park. She was going to go in to see Angel looking like a blind stinky freak to ask for help in identifying and defeating the demons that had taken all those children. The crowning glory of the moment was that she was going to have to explain herself to him. Why did the gods hate her so much?
She got her nerve up enough finally to buzz his apartment.
His voice immediately crackled over the speaker, "Yes?"
"Uh, Professor Byrne? You said I could come over to discuss my essay topic. It's Beth Winters," Buffy was fully as nervous as she sounded. Not only was this going to draw all kinds of unwanted attention to herself, she now had to face Angel.
There was a pause, and when the speaker came on again, Buffy clearly heard Xander's voice in the background, "But you said you weren't assigning any essays-" he was apparently forcibly hushed to judge from the "Ow!" that was shouted over Angel's response.
"Sure, come in." It was with a sinking feeling that Buffy made her way up the stairs to Angel's front door.
***
When he opened the front door, Angel was struck by how beautiful she looked, nervous and clearly with the faint whiff of sewer still on her she was still the most stunning sight he had ever seen. Auburn was a good look for her. "Come in," he said, stepping back to let her in. "Now why are you really here, Buffy?" he asked once the door was closed.
She took a deep breath, "I need help. I work for the FBI and-"
"We know that Buffy," Willow interrupted, "What I want to know is what you think you're doing waltzing into town after being gone for ten years and then just expecting our help."
Buffy flinched at Willow's words and responded, "I was assigned to this case because I knew Sunnydale, and I'm asking for your help because none of my resources can identify these." With that, Buffy presented the sketch to the woman who was once her best friend. "I don't expect you to help me. I'm asking you to help the fifty children they've kidnapped over the past year or so."
"Then what? You'll just take off and we won't hear from you again until the next time you can't handle something?" Xander asked bitterly.
Angel wanted to interrupt the two, but he was also somewhat bitter about the vanishing act ten years earlier. He wanted to know why she had never contacted any of them, hadn't contacted him when she had said she loved him. So he watched. Her response to Xander's question surprised all of them.
"How about we get Giles and Ms Calendar and anyone else you guys think I owe an explanation to, and I'll tell you what happened." Buffy looked each of them in the eye adding, "I think it'll be less complicated for everyone if I only tell my story once, and you guys don't repeat the same questions."
It was agreed, and Giles arrived with Jenny in tow shortly thereafter. Everyone got settled, and then Xander demanded again,"So? Why did you leave?"
Buffy gave a chuckle, "In a way Willow, it was your fault," she shook her head at the other's indignation, "I'm not saying you drove me away or anything. You guys remember that really slimy demon Angel and I killed down at the beach? The one about . . . oh a month before I left? The picture Willow took of me wearing Angel's shirt and Angel shirtless had my Mom thinking I slept with Angel." Buffy smiled in amused remembrance.
"She completely freaked. The next thing I knew, I was sent to boarding school in Washington. I was supposed to spend the weekends with Dad," her voice developed a certain angry quality, in spite of the sadness, "But that was too much effort for him, so I spent the next year and a half living in the dorm."
Giles frowned and said, "Well that does explain why you left without so much as a word, but what possible reason did you have for not contacting us?" The accusation in his eyes was too much for her to take, and Buffy started to look at the floor as her narrative continued.
"The thing is, Mom and Dad told the principal about the `bad influences' in my life. They didn't want me to see any of you again-"
Willow interrupted again, "So you just listened to them?! We were your friends Buffy! You just dropped us `cause you wanted-"
"I was under lock and key every moment I wasn't in direct supervision by one of the faculty members!" Buffy shouted in response, "They deliberately made certain my roommate was the biggest snitch in the school! For a year and a half I wasn't alone for a minute! I wasn't allowed off the school grounds." She finished softly remembering nearly two years of a life not dissimilar to prison.
"A computer was specifically disconnected from the internet for my use to hand in papers, and the teachers made just enough of my bad reputation that no one would do me the favour of mailing you guys a letter." Tears began to roll down her face as the sheer grief and loneliness of that time came back to her.
Angel watched Buffy crying and couldn't help himself. He moved from his seat by the window onto the couch, and wrapped his arms around her. He felt her stiffen briefly, then she began to sob in earnest. Giles looked torn between joining Angel in comforting the slayer who was once his charge, and staying where he was. The others merely looked taken aback, but they didn't speak or interfere, and by the time Buffy had regained some self possession, Willow and Jenny were looking distinctly sympathetic.
With his arm still firmly wrapped around her, and secretly enjoying the close contact, Angel hesitantly asked, "But what about after high school? I mean, by then you could have come back, your parents wouldn't have had any hold on you."
Buffy gave a bitter chuckle, "Oh I would've," that same grim laughter, "But I was so loopy after a year and a half of being shunned, that Dad got me put into an institution to `help me past this transition period to normalcy'." She shuddered, then said, "I was there for another two years."
By then, even Xander couldn't maintain his anger. Suddenly the couch was very crowded with Willow and Xander having joined Angel in a group hug. There were a lot of apologies offered, and Giles and Jenny even stepped over to give Buffy an embrace. Anya, not knowing Buffy in the slightest held back as long as she could, but finally couldn't wait any more. "So? That still leaves six and a half years when you could've called."
Abruptly Buffy flushed and looked at the floor, "That really was my fault. You see, when I finally got out, and decided to become an FBI agent, I just didn't know what I was going to say to you guys." She looked truly pathetic as she gazed at her friends, "I mean, here I'd vanished without a trace years before, what was I gonna say? `Oh hi, remember me? I was your friend but I disappeared. Now I'm back!'?" she shrugged, "I had no self esteem, and by the time I had really pulled myself together enough to come back, it really was too late to just reappear in your lives. I figured better to just let it be."
Xander broke into her introspection, "Okay, enough of that. Why did you become an FBI agent? Do you work on the X-Files? Can you get me a tax break?"
With that the tension broke, and ten years of gossip, tales of adventures, and occult insanity were exchanged. Willow's adventures in relationships, "Wills! You dated a girl?" Buffy's life in the FBI, "No way Buffs! You get to claim your broadsword collection as part of your tax deductions?", Giles and Jenny's wedding, ". . . So anyways, there was Xander, giving a toast to the happy couple, and he actually told that story about that chair woman incident!" Giles' response, "Yes, and I was never so embarrassed in my life."
After Xander's joke though, Buffy moved away from Angel, and didn't go near him again for the rest of the evening.
*******************
The party broke up somewhere around four in the morning, and everyone left to go home, promising to meet the next afternoon to research Buffy's demons. Angel was left alone in his apartment wondering whether Buffy still cared about him at all. She'd leaned into him readily enough when she'd broken down, but the moment she realised she was leaning against him Buffy had leaped to her feet and had kept a considerable distance between the two of them all evening. He was also the only one she hadn't had a private word with.
The only conclusion he could draw was that she'd not only gotten over him, but she'd realised how insane a relationship between the two of them could be. He was, after all, her professor, and she probably had a boyfriend. Why else would she own that nightgown?
Angel went to bed and slept fitfully, his dreams full of Buffy declaring undying love to a faceless man while dressed in nothing but a thong and strapless bra.
***
Buffy lay in bed and went over every moment of the evening to catch any hint at all Angel was still interested in her. She had made a complete ass of herself collapsing and sobbing all over him like the buffle brained heroine of a Harlequin romance, and had gotten away from him to compose herself as soon as she had realised it. He hadn't gone near her again, despite all the hints she had thrown his way.
Maybe he had a girlfriend now. The others all had someone, which would make Buffy the pathetic dateless loser. Just like she had been in high school. Angel had probably gotten over her schoolgirl crush and found himself a woman who knew what she was doing. How could he not? He was handsome, smart, a university professor, and sexy as all hell. He would have no trouble finding himself a girlfriend.
Buffy curled up and tried not to cry as she imagined him in bed with some gorgeous exotic female, laughing over his early romantic follies like the small blonde slayer who had tears running down her cheeks despite her best efforts to stop them.
*********************
The following afternoon they all gathered at the Magic Box and began to search for any clues as to what Buffy's demons were up to, and how to stop them. Things were a little awkward at first, but soon the old camaraderie of those earlier days in the Sunnydale High School library came back. Giles, Angel, Willow and Jenny all worked diligently, while Xander and Buffy alternated between going for snacks and trying to look busy. Anya counted money and didn't bother pretending.
Buffy frequently shot sidelong glances at Angel, not wanting to be caught staring at him, but unable to help herself. He just looked so handsome sitting in the pool of sunlight coming in through the window. She was also trying to decide whether the ring he was wearing was an engagement ring or not.
***
Angel was engaged in a similar pursuit. He kept checking to see if Buffy had any jewellry that would indicate whether she was affianced to anyone, and was immensely relived that she didn't appear to be. She also looked so beautiful in the hip hugging blue jeans and low cut t-shirt. He shifted uncomfortably, then stood declaring he was going to take a break.
He headed for the back, which served as a training room for the gang, as well as a place to put the fridge. He got a bottle of water out, and gulped it down in an attempt to get himself under control. He jumped in surprise when he heard Buffy speak. "It's really nice in here," she said, "I mean, the training centre for the FBI doesn't have anywhere I can practice with a crossbow."
Angel turned around, noticing how natural she looked in the room and forced a chuckle out, "Yeah, well I don't think that crossbows are really part of the up-to-date agent's arsenal."
"True," she smiled, "Wanna go a round?"
He gulped, "What?" surely she didn't mean . . .
"Spar? With me?" she asked.
Angel looked at her, glanced at the door and calculated escape routes. Then he decided to be reckless, "Why not?" he replied, grinning.
They took off their shoes, and headed onto the mat. The room was silent as the two sized each other up for a moment. Then Buffy made the first move. The kick could have seriously hurt him if he hadn't seen it coming. He blocked it and responded with a punch that she simply dodged and returned.
Soon they had both entered the flow of battle. All thoughts of lost love, crushes, inadequacy and lust had gone, and all there was, was the kicks, punches and blocks. Suddenly, Buffy dropped and kicked his feet out from under him, and Angel just barely managed to tangle her feet up in his own as he fell. When they hit the mat together, Angel rolled them so that he had her pinned beneath him.
Abruptly both were aware of the intimacy of their position, each panting, both sweaty, their faces mere inches apart. They leaned closer and closer together, and just as their lips were about to brush-
Xander shouted ecstatically from the other room, "Woo-hoo! I got `em!"
Immediately the couple broke apart and scrambled to opposite sides of the room to put their shoes back on, then headed out to see what had happened.
It turned out that the demons Buffy was tracking were called Diebeunschuld, or `thieves of innocence'. They relied on the children they took once every hundred years to make themselves invulnerable.
It was only during a brief window during the ceremony, in which they killed the children in typically ritualistic style, that they could be killed. The symbol found at so many sites was caused by a transportation spell, marking the place where the portal had been. With some further research, they figured out that the rite was going to take place the next evening at the local elementary school. Unfortunately, there was little they could do to prepare other than arm themselves to the teeth, which meant Buffy had to go to class to maintain appearances. Angel's class.
So, she sat at her usual seat, and listened to Angel lecture about the effects of electrical light on the social lives of people in Europe. The lack of sleep from the past two nights caught up with her, and she fell asleep.
Standing at the front of the room, Angel noticed Buffy slump over, and hoped that she woke up rested, and didn't force him to have to wake her up. When she smiled, he wondered whether she was dreaming about her boyfriend. Odd she hadn't mentioned him yet.
Part 4
Buffy found herself wandering through Sunnydale as it was ten years before. She knew she was being followed, but the thought didn't alarm her. In fact, it made her feel safe. As she reached 1630 Revello, and climbed up to her window, she slipped and would have fallen if it weren't for the cool hands that caught her, and then wrapped themselves around her waist. Suddenly Buffy was perched in the tree, the owner of those hands still holding her, and gently caressing her through the thin material of her shirt. He leaned down, and kissed her, and Buffy tasted the familiar flavour of toothpaste and Angel, with the slightest hint of blood.
Somehow, the transition was made to her room and Buffy was lying on her bed, her clothes and his miraculously having disappeared. They were still kissing, and his weight settled over her, so perfectly, so right, she wondered how she could ever give it up. His hands were all over her, and they both kissed as though neither could get enough of the other.
Suddenly, his hips shifted, and he was so close to-
Waking her up as she realised she had slept through the class and everyone leaving. Angel smiled at her, and Buffy wondered how he would react if she kissed him right then. He'd probably gently pull me off and tell me he's sorry for leading me on, but he has a girlfriend. Or boyfriend, Buffy thought grumpily. "I'm up," she declared, firmly putting a smile on her face.
Angel looked at her smiling face, and wished she were smiling because of him, not whoever was in her dream. "Sleep well?" he inquired.
"Yeah. Weird dreams though," Buffy replied, as they made their way out of class and down to Angel's car. "So, you're human. How'd that happen?" Buffy asked.
Angel told her about Spike's hunt for the ring, and how they had managed to trick him into wearing a fake and burning up in the sun. He told her about the spell Willow had found buried along with the rest of the treasure and the Gem of Amara in Giles' private collection. They talked about the demons each had faced, and how they had beaten them. The conversation lasted right to the door of the Magic Box.
Oz had returned from his latest tour, and after a positively adorable reunion with Willow, had offered the use of his new van to transport the gang and their weapons to the school. They spent the afternoon packing the vehicle and organising themselves into groups and determining strategy.
At sunset they piled into the van and drove off. As they walked into the school, the sound of chanting and crying children lead them directly to the ritual. The large numbers of both demons and children were in the gym. Alongside them were a large number of humans who were participating in the sacrifice for the same reward the demons sought.
One of the Diebeunschuld strode over to the whimpering children and pulled a small boy out of the group, and yanking a knife out if his belt, began to move to slit the child's throat. As Angel fumbled to get the crossbow into position to shoot the monster, knowing he couldn't do it in time, Buffy simply yanked her gun out of her back pocket and shot the Diebeunschuld, causing it to simultaneously drop the boy and die.
As the Scoobies moved to enter the battle, Giles muttered, "I see we have progressed past the crossbow."
"No kidding," Angel said, as he sliced the head off of a demon with his axe.
Ultimately, the battle was almost an anticlimax, as the Diebeunschuld were pathetically easy to kill when they weren't invulnerable. Centuries of being unkillable had left them with absolutely no survival skills, and the Scooby gang were able to take them out with ease.
Buffy was also overjoyed at the presence of enough humans to constitute a cult, and once the demons were disposed of, and her friends out of the way, she called in the FBI backup that had been waiting just out of town for her call. They rounded up the escaped cult members with ease, and the children were immediately put on planes to go back to their parents.
Buffy left for Washington, and got very deeply involved in the wrap up of the case, and explaining to the warlock what had really happened to his daughter. Buffy wrote her friends regularly, telling them how things were going, and about her life, and Laurie the Anomovic's baby boy, who had been christened Gerald Andrew Hartaneekarn Smith. The third name was for his grandfather. Buffy's friends back in Sunnydale were all ecstatic at having regular contact with Buffy, and as the months passed they all settled back into the close friendships they had all shared before. All except Angel, that is.
He was happy to be getting letters from her, and he wrote back just as frequently. They had become quite close over the months, and shared things with each other that neither could share with anyone else. His problem was that he wanted more. He wanted Buffy there in Sunnydale, and he wanted her to be in love with him.
Unfortunately every letter he received from her made it quite clear she thought of him as no more than a close friend. He stopped dating though, feeling it was unfair to string a woman along when all he could give her was a one night stand of meaningless sex. He didn't want Buffy to hear about it and be disappointed in him either.
Eventually the others stopped trying to get him to go out trolling for dates. So he was surprised when Anya insisted he join them all at the Bronze one evening. It had become the prime spot for all the people in their late twenties and early thirties after a new club on the good side of town was opened. That happened after the fourth time the Bronze was completely wrecked in `gang attacks', and parents got upset enough to demand something for their kids in a safer neighbourhood. The people who had grown up with the Bronze had continued to go there, so it had aged a little.
He arrived there, and was stopped in the doorway by the sight of Buffy in a dress so short it was virtually indecent, dancing to some pop song that was little more than a request for sex by the singer. He finally moved forward when someone shoved him, none too gently, away from the door he was blocking.
She turned, and her eyes landed on him immediately. She smiled, and began to mouth the words of the song at him. Angel swallowed hard, and found his feet moving him to her side, unbidden.The moment he came within arm's length of her, she stepped up to him, and wrapped herself around him. When the song ended, the DJ said, "Okay folks! I have a request here, from Buffy to Angel! Cibo Matto's `Sugar Water'!"
For a moment Angel couldn't quite remember why the music seemed so familiar. Then Buffy stepped back and began to dance around him. Her hips swaying to the music, her eyes darkening with promises he spent his nights dreaming of, Buffy seductively moved around him in a way he had only seen once. Ten years earlier, she had tried to drive him insane with jealousy by dancing with Xander. Tonight, that same dance that could pass as foreplay, was being done for him. Angel began to move with her asking, "What are you doing?"
"Something I should have done ten years ago," Buffy responded with a smile.
He nearly combusted on the spot. "Buffy, we really shouldn't-"
"Quiet," she ordered him, "Anya and I talked. Neither of us is seeing anyone, and I know I love you, and Anya says that you're still in love with me," she fixed a glare on him, even as her body continued its torturous movements, "There is no reason for us not to do this."
Angel just stared at her. She wasn't seeing anyone? He had spent all this time certain she no longer cared for him like that, and she still loved him? Apparently something in his expression made her nervous, because she stilled, and said, "Unless Anya was wrong about you loving me." The sudden fear in her voice, and on her face spurred him.
"I do. I love you," he took a deep breath, "I thought you had a boyfriend. I saw you in your lingerie, and I still can't think of any reason why you'd own that, unless you had a boyfriend."
She rolled her eyes, "It was a gag gift from my coworkers for `the eternal spinster'." There was a pause, during which both chuckled and began to move again, when Buffy stiffened slightly and frowned up at him, "You saw me? You were spying on me in my room?"
"Uhhh. Well, I was hoping to see-"
"Me in my underwear?" Buffy said with a raised eyebrow.
"No!" The brow eased higher and Angel realised his faux pas. "I mean, not that I wouldn't want . . . That is I . . ." he trailed off on seeing her snicker, "I can't possibly answer that one right, can I?"
"Nope," replied Buffy cheerily, "Maybe you should take me home where you won't have to talk." She smiled at him, and wiggled her hips suggestively. A grin broke out on his face, and the two virtually sprinted for the door. They had ten years to catch up on after all.
The End
Part 1
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