Title: Reasons

Author: S J Smith

Rating: Teen

Summary: Angel went on a killing spree after Buffy died. And then she came back and found out about it.

Disclaimer: Seriously, if I owned any of this, I wouldn't be struggling to pay for my internet.

Note: Leni and I were talking via Facebook last night, and she'd put up the following quote: What do you say when someone says to you, "When you died, I went on a killing spree?" For some reason, that made me think of The Gift, and what Angel's reactions might have been, if that had happened a little later in the AtS series. And this story came out of it.

"Aww, honey, this is so romantic. Not." Buffy frowned at Angel, the list of the dead in her hands.

"But."

"But nothing, you went...what is the word I'm looking for? Maybe crazy?"

"You died." Angel said it almost patiently. "And the people I killed..."

"That's it, the people," Buffy repeated.

Angel gave her a look. "Who weren't really people. They were something else entirely. It was like fighting a demon horde."

Buffy wasn't quite swayed. "Why didn't Giles know about this?"

"Because Giles didn't want to hear from me after you died," Angel said, still reining in his temper. "We did the research, Buffy. They weren't human. They were constructs - whatever happened to the people they were supposed to be, those souls were already gone."

Buffy wasn't quite sure she should be swayed by his words, even if they made sense. Giles - Xander - even Willow - said Angel had changed. How much had he changed, anyway? "You know there's no way to prove what you're saying," she said.

Angel took a deep, unneeded breath, and let it out again. "All right," he said, "let me have Fred email everything to Giles - or Willow," he added, as if realizing emailing anything to Giles would be a foolish move, "and then, after you research it for yourself, you'll understand what I was doing." He started for the door, and his shoulders nearly filled the door frame. Hesitating, Angel said over his shoulder, not quite looking back, "You know, I had my reasons for doing this. Let me know when you want to know them."

And then, he was gone.

There won't be more of this story. This is it.

Thank you for reading!