Author's Note: HI EVERYONE! I'm back with this sequel to Broken. If you have not read it, I strongly suggest you do. Otherwise some things in here will be pretty confusing. That being said, it is a different story, so be bad and go for it anyway ;)

This is going to delve in Angel's past and it is quite horrific. I came up the with the idea a few days ago and thought, 'why the fuck not?' so I'm going with it. It has been pretty hard for me to decide which past is worse, Angel's or Buffy's, so I'm going to let you all make that own personal decision. Alright, I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nope. I own NOTHING. Sadly. *weeps*

Alright guys, now remember this story is new and it has a lifeline, which is you guys. So that means Review for more. No reviews no chapters. It's like a barter economy, reviews for chapters :)

Anyway . . . Happy Reading!

Secrets are lies. Buffy is extremely aware of this fact because most of her life has been about secrets. She knows what they mean. They mean little white tall-tales that equal into a snowballing lie. There is no way around it. One cannot keep a secret without lying and Angel, he was keeping a secret. She wasn't judging. She had no right to, but lying, cheating, and abuse, those were her deal breakers and she didn't want a deal breaker in her relationship with him.

These past eleven months with him have been great. Junior year has been great. She felt more relaxed, calmer. Of course their relationship hadn't escalated from anything other than hand holding and extremely hot and heavy make-out sessions. She was comfortable with this, but she was worried he wasn't. He continued to say that he was and she knew this was paranoia, on her part.

However, the phone calls he would sneak off to take or the texts he would hide from her, those aren't anything bred from paranoia. They're secrets. They're lies and everyone is entitled to their own privacy. She's fine with that, she just wished he didn't have to hide it from her. A 'it's nothing, Buffy.' Doesn't cut it with her, because everything is something, even if it's a miniscule part of his life.

Great, he was turning her into some clingy girl. Has she ever mentioned that she hated him? Well, she does. She also loves him to a point that is near painful. So, she's stuck. She's also pacing. Ethan has been yelling to stop creating a draft for the past hour. She was ignoring him. Then a knock.

"Okay, jeez, E! No more pacing, I got it!" She yelled through the door and fell face first onto her bed. Her door opened and she groaned, burying her face in the fluffy bedding.

"I don't want a lecture!" She screamed into the blankets, making it a muffled growl.

She was just about to push up when strong hands gripped her hips and moved her up the bed. She blinked down at the comforter, before squealing and spinning around, coming face to face with beautiful chocolate browns.

"Angel!" She grinned and moved, crushing her mouth to his. He chuckled against her lips, sliding his fingers through her hair as his knees rested on either side of her hips.

"I wasn't going to lecture you. What's with the pacing?" He asked softly, trailing his lips gently along her jaw, causing his warm breath to fan across her face. Right now, she didn't know why she was denying sex. Maybe it was because of the total self-loathing she got whenever thinking about it. She sighed and fell flat on her back.

"It's nothing." She lied. God, she was suck a fucking hypocrite.

"Liar." He called her out and lucky for her, he could see right through her bullshit. She smiled and turned her mouth from his, he dropped a kiss on her cheek with a whine, like a toddler being denied their favorite toy. She rolled her eyes.

"You're such a big baby." She mumbled, fiddling with the collar of his shirt and moving up, pressing her lips softly to his. She pulled back slowly and felt the playful air shift, like it usually does. Into something hotter. Something far more sexually charged. Like a palpable need in the air. She pushed on his chest and he rolled over, resting on his back.

She sat up and rested her forearms on her knees. She was so fucking ridiculous. She wanted him. She trusted him. What in the fucking hell was holding her back? Oh right, the elephant in the room. Speaking off . . .

His phone buzzed and he glanced at it. You see that? The way his eyes narrowed and his shoulders tensed? Yeah, that was him bracing, knowing he needed to close off because Buffy was an intuitive bitch and he was keeping something from her. She shrugged off the hurt and went for casual.

"What's that?" She asked, going to fall next to him, just as the side of her body collided with mattress he was standing, and slipping his phone away. He bent over and pecked her cheek.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked and she grabbed the collar of his t-shirt again with two of her fingers, staring up at him and searching his eyes. Other people, she had no problem reading. At all. She could read Angel's emotions, his actions, she just couldn't read his eyes and it terrified her, because she could read everyone's eyes. Of course her ability would be completely dormant around the one person she actually wanted to read.

"Yes, I'm fine. What about you? Are you okay?" She asked and he stared at her for a moment.

"I have to go." He dodges and she blinked at the back of his head. Her eyes narrowed as she sat up.

"You always have to go. Where are you going, exactly?" Buffy asked and Angel glanced back at her.

"Nowhere important, princess, okay?" He asked. Did you see that? The tense voice, the annoyance flashing in his eyes? No? Well, it's there, crystal clear to Buffy.

"Okay, great, but you're leaving and you won't tell me where. Are you going home?" Buffy asked and his jaw tightened as he cracked his fingers. The sound made her flinch. She blinked, her nails digging into her comforter as she desperately pushed at the overwhelming feeling of danger she felt whenever around him. It had heightened with the more and more time they spent together.

She wasn't afraid of him, that wasn't the problem. The problem was the fact that she knew she should be afraid of him.

"No, I'm just – Buffy, I have to go somewhere. Can't you just trust me?" He asked, staring down at her and she stared up at him. No, I can't. She didn't voice this thought, though.

"Of course." She lied. Hypocrite.

"I just." She slide to the end of the bed.

"I just want to know what's going on. Please, just tell me." Buffy says and Angel got onto his knees in front of her, holding onto her hands on her thighs.

"Buffy, you're just being paranoid. There is nothing to tell. I promise." He lied. Buffy stared at him, he moved and kissed her cheek.

"I'll call you later, just stuff with . . . Kathy." He answered. That was a cruel lie. But she didn't call him on it. She just nodded and let go of his hand, her heart squeezing in her chest. He smiled tightly and moved, leaving. Buffy watched the door for a while after that.

It wasn't about Kathy. If it was, he would have just told her that. He used it as a deflection and he knew her feelings on Kathy. He knew about Dawn, so saying that he needed to go take care of that, was just wrong in her eyes. He was lying to her and she was lying to him because she was pretending it didn't bother her.

She fell flat onto her back and pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes. Then she closed her eyes and did something she hadn't ever done.

Dear God, you've taken everything else, as far as I'm concerned. Don't take him. Take anything else. Please, don't take him. He's mine.

The tears burned and fell into her temples. She grabbed her pillow and burrowed into it. She always said Angel had the power to destroy her. That's what love is. Giving someone the power to break you, but trusting them not to. That was love. The most clear definition and heartbreak was what you experienced when they did break you. Buffy was broken by her mother and father countless times. She had no trust left. Yet she conjured some up for Angel, even though she barely survived the last blow to her heart.

If he broke her, she was positive that nothing and no one would come along to heal her this time. So she prayed that something, anything out there would give her strength and perhaps a little luck. Didn't she deserve that?