Loose Thy Tongue
by
Princess McPhee
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wouldn't even want, the way Joss and David have wrecked the characters and cast list. I'm so incredibly pissed about Tara!
Summary: When alcohol's loosens Angel's tongue, he releases a secret of immense proportions. B/A, set early BtVS S6/AtS S2, pre-Conner.
Rating: Don't know yet. G for now.
Buffy walked into the bar, not quite sure what she was doing there. Heading to get a drink, she remembered that this wasn't the Bronze, and they'd probably card her rather than give her anything she wanted because of her reputation for saving Sunnydale. One of the few perks of being the Slayer. Sighing, she headed to a corner to see if she could find some guy to buy her a few beers without any questions. She didn't like being in LA, it was depressing, and she just wanted to get drunk so she could go back to the hotel and sleep through the last twelve hours before driving home to Sunnydale.
A familiar voice caught her attention, and she froze. Not quite wanting to believe her ears, and if she decided to believe them, not quite sure if this was a really good thing or a really bad thing or a little of both, she turned slowly to look over where the sound had come from. And yes, there was her ex, covered by some lithe woman with long legs in a little dress that she could never pull off. Buffy wanted to leave, but she couldn't seem to make her legs move, so she settled for pulling her body behind a pole and watching Angel from where he couldn't easily see her.
The woman all over Angel's lap was making her insanely jealous, and she just wanted to get out of there, but her body wouldn't cooperate with her mind. It was stuck, ruled by hormones and old memories and the sheer nearness of his imposing presence. So she watched, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. The woman on Angel's lap could probably be everything she couldn't: A nice screw without any worries about the curse. A release of tension he probably needed, but couldn't get from her, because it made him too happy. It was sadly ironic, Buffy thought often, that she and Angel couldn't be together because she made him too happy.
Eventually, Angel pushed the woman off of him a bit, and spoke for the second time. The first time, he'd only been ordering a beer, and Buffy hadn't paid much attention to what he'd said. Now her ears were glued to every word that came out of his mouth, especially if it was directed at the brunette who'd been in his lap a moment ago. "I can't do this."
The brunette looked confused. "Why not?"
"I'm married."
Buffy's heart stopped. He was WHAT? When the hell had this happened? And why had no one informed her? And again, what the hell was Angel talking about? Her mind going around in circles, she tried to follow his conversation with the brunette woman, aware even through the haze of her confusion that this might be her best link to what was going on.
The brunette returned to her own seat, still looking confused, and Buffy watched, her tears drying, her astonishment overwhelming her hurt for the moment. "What are you looking for, then?" She heard the woman ask. "Some gals might do another woman's man, but I'm afraid I don't really go for that..."
Angel nodded. "I suspected as much."
Buffy almost smiled with the irony. Leave it to Angel to find the only semi-decent woman in a place like this. But there wasn't enough humor in her mind, and she couldn't. Instead, she just continued listening.
"We're... we're separated. For more than two years now. I thought I could do this... but I can't."
The woman looked disappointed, but she nodded. "I understand. She must be a lucky woman."
Angel looked saddened. "I wish she were."
Suddenly, something clicked in Buffy's mind. More than two years ago, she and Angel were still together. Had he been cheating on her? No. Angel wouldn't do that. She supposed it could have been the summer after they'd broken up, that was more than two years ago, but after they had broken up. After he'd left. He couldn't possibly be talking about her. They weren't married.
Slipping quietly out of the club, Buffy headed off to find Cordelia. Maybe the ex-cheerleader and Scooby could give her some insight where her eavesdropping failed.
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"He said WHAT?"
Apparently Cordelia was as shocked as Buffy. Strike one.
"That he was married. Separated for more than two years."
Cordelia shook her head, still in shock. "I have no idea what my insane ex-boss could possibly have been talking about."
Buffy shrugged. "That makes two of us."
Wesley appeared at the top of the stairs a moment later. "Oh! Hello, Buffy. I didn't know you were coming by."
Buffy smiled wryly and waved a greeting. "I didn't know either. Until I saw Angel in a bar and overheard him say that he was MARRIED."
Wesley reacted with the same shock both the girls had. "What?"
They both shrugged. "Buffy said he told this to some girl he brushed off in a bar, who was coming on to him."
Wesley looked a little more relaxed. "Oh. Are you certain that it wasn't just a way to get rid of the girl, then?"
Buffy nodded. "She seemed pretty decent. She left as soon as he asked, it wasn't like she was hanging all over him. For some reason or another, he meant it."
Wesley just stood there, his mouth hanging open like a fish.
Cordy grabbed Buffy's arm and pulled her into the kitchen. "C'mon. I'll make us some tea, and you can wait for Broody to come back."
Buffy smiled. "Do you call him that all the time?" She asked.
"What, Broody?"
Buffy nodded.
"No. Only when he's not around, or he's being particularly incurable."
The Slayer grinned, sliding into the chair next to the Seer. "I think I like it."
"See? Now I can really tell Angel he's the only one who doesn't like it even the slightest bit."
Buffy grinned.
The door to the hotel slammed, and both girls started. Heavy footsteps stomped into the lobby, and Buffy stood and headed for the door, Cordelia right behind her. When she got closer, alcohol assailed her nose. "He's been drinking," She stated unnecessarily.
Cordy wrinkled her nose. "I know. He smells like a brewery."
Buffy turned to look at Cordelia, she and the Seer still just out of sight of the vampire in the lobby. "Any idea why? He's not really a drinker."
She shrugged. "Not really. There was this thing with Wolfram and Hart a few days ago, where they had some telepath give me visions that happened to me-" She looked up at Buffy's confused expression. "Long story. Short story is, I kind of came uncomfortably close to dying. Painfully. He's been a little touchy for a few days."
Buffy nodded. "Makes sense."
Cordy shrugged. "Spose."
Buffy peered around the corner of the room, into the lobby, and caught sight of Angel. Looking him up and down a bit, she decided he didn't look half bad. She'd seen him recently, when they'd met up to reassure both of them that Buffy was alive, but still, in their business, a lot could change quickly.
Stepping into the room, Angel's head swiveled towards her nearly as quickly as she could put her foot down. On edge, his face was hard and looked almost menacing for a second, before he saw who it was. Then shock, laced with something else that Buffy couldn't pinpoint, took over.
"What are you doing here?"
Buffy shrugged. "Long story. Why do you smell like you've been rolling in vodka? Demon crap I would understand, but what's with the alcohol?"
Angel shrugged back, mirroring her. "Long story."
Buffy put her hands on her hips. "I have time."
Short, and surprisingly curtly, Angel replied, "I don't," and stalked off into the bathroom.
Looking behind her to Cordelia, Buffy looked at her ex-enemy-slash-sort-of-friend. "What was that?" She asked.
Cordy shrugged. "What was what?"
Buffy looked incredulously at the Seer. "You didn't notice?"
Cordy shrugged again. "I noticed. Then filed it away as another 'Remember not to bother Angel' day. Nothing new."
"Nothing new? He does this a lot?"
"Does what? He's just being a grouch. Which is, as far as I can tell, his normal operating mode. Occasionally interspersed with 'overly protective'."
Buffy shook her head a little. "He never used to be like this with me."
"He's drunk. Maybe he's just expressing a little... hidden sentiment."
"Maybe."
She looked at Cordy for a moment, then made her decision. "I'm going to talk to him."
"Now? In the bathroom?"
She shrugged. "Why not? He's just hiding in there."
"How can you tell that? Wait, I didn't mean that. I don't want to know about the inner workings of vampire-human bonds. I hear enough of that on a daily basis from Wesley. Go right ahead and talk to him. Be my guest. Just don't blame me if you get thrown out on your ass."
Buffy ignored her, and stalked over to the closed bathroom door. When she shoved it open and entered without the Seer hearing any indignant noises of privacy interrupted, she shrugged and went back to her work. Whatever lover's spat that Buffy and Angel wanted to have, she damn well wasn't going to get in the middle of. She'd learned her lesson about that a long time ago.
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Angel was staring at the mirror where his reflection should have been when Buffy shoved the door open. He looked up, startled, but didn't say anything. She entered the room without asking permission, and shut the door solidly behind her, locking it so that there wouldn't be any interruptions.
"Okay. Obviously, you don't want to talk, so I'll do the talking." She paused to look at her ex-lover, and then looked down at her shoes as she saw the love still reflecting in his eyes. Being together was always so awkward for them. "I'm on a case, here in LA, and I was at a bar, looking for a little alcoholic release from my worries so that I could sleep. There I saw, you guessed it! You!"
Angel tried to catch her eye. "Buffy... It wasn't what it looked like..."
Buffy finally looked straight at him. "Yes it was. And you're allowed to have that, Angel. It's not my right to be jealous, anymore. But that's not the point."
Angel looked puzzled. "What is the point, then?"
"I saw you brush her off."
Angel opened his mouth to speak, but Buffy put up a hand and cut him off. "I heard you tell her you're married."
Angel's face didn't display any sense of emotion for a long moment. Then, "I didn't mean it."
"Yes, you did." Buffy looked up at him, using her eyes to plead with him, beg him to respect her enough to tell her the truth. "I know you well enough to tell when you lie, Angel."
He didn't bother to deny it. Instead, he just waited while the silence grew heavier, as Buffy looked up at him, hoping she wouldn't have to ask the next question on the tip of her tongue.
"Who was she, Angel?" Half-hoping that it wasn't her, so she could go along with her delusion that Angel could be happy without her, half-hoping it was her, in some strange, impossible way, because she wasn't sure she could survive knowing that Angel could go on living without her.
Angel looked a little startled as she asked. "It could never be anyone else, Buffy."
Not wanting to believe her ears, she ignored him as much as she could. "Who?"
He looked at her, staring deep into her eyes with wide, chocolate brown ones of his own. "You, Buffy. There hasn't been anyone since you that I would ever, in a million years marry."
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