"Immortal Beloved..." CXXXIX...

PG-13

Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers? Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you no stinkin'...No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!

It's all yours and Chuck's...

Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...

Summary: Though my standard IB format, one of (139) versions of events following the end of Angel S5 episodes from "Girl in Question" through to "Not Fade Away" and beyond... (Not a continuous story, though some are multipart...Soemetimes as my BTVS readers know I use them as fragments to expand on for stories later) You can find the Buffy centric ones as "Immortal Beloved". This one however is a retread of IB 134 adapted as my first TBBT/BTVS cross…Strickly fun for celebrating Bloomsday tomorrow (6.16.12)…

Well, it was tomorrow when I started… (It will appear on the IB series as well as independently with my Sheldonverse BBT tales)...

Cal Tech subcampus …Evening adult extension class.

"Lit 311… "Shakespeare, Swift, and Joyce…A brief tour." written on the large chalkboard at the auditorium hall's front. Thirty-seven students scattered about the only room available.

"The word known to all men." written and underlined on the board. The instructor eyeing the class as best he could, given the scattering. A few, mostly women concentrated in the first two rows…A number clearly in hiding in the sides and rear.

"Right then…Nice to see a few of you have returned. To return to the theme we began at the end of class Tuesday '…the word known to all men…' in 'Ulysses'. We've established from the earlier passage in the National Library scene that the word Stephen wishes from his mother's ghost '…the word known to all men…' is love."

Oh, yeah…One young, tall, blonde-haired woman in rather more formal than her usual wear, blouse and slacks, in front row nodded eagerly at the young teacher, rather too-good-looking for such a class despite his sedate beige suit pausing before her.

That's that word…She noted to her companion on left, a brunette in rather sedate sweater, blouse, skirt.

The brunette nodding…Eyes fixed on the instructor. A slight…"Hum"…Emerging as she likewise stared.

The instructor briefly cast a smile at her, a bit nonplused by her eager stare, but even more so by the narrow look the brunette's seatmate to her left. He eyeing the instructor with an intense glare…Muttering a bit. Glare intensifying as the instructor resumed.

"Sheldon, keep still…" the brunette hissed as the instructor passed them . "And stop trying to explode Mr. Walthrop's head."

"Now the lines we discussed confirming that from the passage include a line conjoining two phrases from Thomas Aquinas's 'Summa contra gentiles', namely distinguishing between two forms of love. That unselfish love which in the first six words 'amor vero aliquid alicui bonum vult' genuinely wishes another's good and the selfish desire of one to secure pleasure for him- or her- self 'unde et ea quae concupiscimus'."

"Is this what impresses you? A couple of Latin phrases?" Sheldon hissed back.

"Enough." Amy hissed. "No one made you come. Just be quiet and listen." Quick smile at the instructor as he briefly eyed her.

"Yeah, can it, Sheldon. We're tryin' to learn something here." The tall blonde noted, whispering over the brunette.

Right…'Learn something'. What, his phone number and address? Sheldon, darkly…

Penny, the literary lioness…Uh-huh.

On the other hand…Despite it being a slight betrayal of my friend Leonard's trust. Luckily she's here to throw her promiscuous self at this charlatan of literature, lest Amy be ensnared.

Though as to Stuart's insistence that "this guy Walthrop is a vampire" based on bizarre web site and insane YouTube information and that we must save our respective significant others from him…Please. Even Leonard laughed his head off at that one…

Almost makes one believe the notion too many comic books can affect one's sense of reality. Thank God, that's clearly not true given mine and my colleagues' firm grip on the real world. Perhaps it's too much comic-com exposure to silly fantasy works like "Twilight" as opposed to sensible comic fodder like The Flash.

Besides…The fellow's short…Certainly too short to be a Dracula.

And I'll bet even the British accent is phony…

"Jesus…" one young man in the back, left side, reasonably secure from the teacher's direct attention, whispered to the short, lithe girl next to him. She even better hidden by a cement pillar… "He's giving us Latin now?"

"Shut up…" the girl whispered back.

The man frowned but, noticing that despite the distance the young brown-haired teacher was now clearly eyeing him, was silent, pulling back a bit in his chair.

So much for that…Girl's cute but just a bookhead. Like a lot of the girls in this damned class, he noted to himself.

Ah…Sides, she's wearin' a wig…Probably got cancer or something and she's all "soulful". Not worth the trouble…He resumed the doodling in his notebook he'd been at since the class' start. God, did that Howard guy in the comic book store steer me wrong on this class… 'Trust me. You'll get good lines to pick up girls. Nothing like tossing off a little Shakespeare or Joyce to get a girl thinking you're deep…Then you tell her you've just written the next 'Twilight' series', he said.

Uh-huh…What…Am I gonna quote Latin in a bar? And all the good girls exceptin' Ms. Snotface here are down there droolin' at the guy. He studied the tall blonde in the front row. Jesus, isn't that Kurt's old girl? "The actress" from Cheesecake Factory? What the heck's she doin' here? Wait, right. The one who hangs with the Hobbit nerds…And look at the two dorks she's with.

God, talk about watchin' who ya hang with…They look like the Wicked Bitch of the West and the Scarecrow.

"So we see the larger implications of 'Ulysses' follow from the accord of Bloom and Stephan Dedalus about love. If we consider the book as a whole, the theme of love will be seen to pervade it… 'Love's bitter mystery', quoted repeatedly from Yeats's poem 'Who goes with Fergus?' appears repeatedly, primarily as the song Stephen remembers having sung to his mother on her deathbed. Although Buck Mulligan is the first to quote the poem, he can't understand it, being a spirit that always denies. It's also alien to the experience of our womanizer Blazes Boylan. Yet Bloom understands it, and so does Molly, and both show us that they cherish moments of affection from their lives together as crucial points from which to judge later events."

Pen drop by a very young brown-haired woman in large hat, barely out of her teens if that, seated next to the lithe woman in wig in the rear. She leaned to pick up the pen, holding hat firmly. Glaring at the trio in the front row.

"That blonde is all over him, again." She hissed to the older girl in wig. "I told ya we oughta be down there."

The older girl shaking head…Eyes on the brunette, who'd demonstrated a far superior knowledge of the three authors and their works in question.

Buffy Summers nee Cicely Addams Walthrop knows the real competition when she sees it.

Besides…William keeps smiling at her, especially when she comes up with some long answer...Almost the only one in the class who seems to be able to keep up. And he always goes for substance over style…When not demon-possessed.

Fortunately, judging by the way the skinny geeky guy next to the brunette keeps giving William the death stare…And that sneering superior tone when he pops up to answer things… the girl's got a boyfriend.

" …In the last episode of the book, Molly Bloom, after some equivocation between her physical longing for Boylan and her thoughts of Bloom, comes down firmly on the side of Bloom and of their old feelings for each other. 'Ulysses' ends in a vision of reconciliation rather than of sundering…"

Sound of book hitting floor…Hasty grab by woman in wig…Dang…

"Joyce, following his master, Dante, has made the case for love. Love in its various forms, sexual, parental, filial, brotherly, and by extension, social…Obliquely, to preserve the novel from didacticism or sentimentality…Like Dante, he tells us that affection between human beings, however transitory, however qualified, is the closest we can come to paradise."

Oh…Yeah…Collective sigh from various women and men across the large auditorium…Gazes fixed on the teacher…He, catching, just a bit disconcerted for a second.

Sheldon, icy stare now…Fingers to forehead.

Hmmn…I could suspend disbelief and see if that UV projector Stuart got Howard to whip up actually works. Guaranteed effective as sunlight for killing vampires…IF they existed, you crazy loon…He'd told Stuart. Who'd insisted I take it anyway.

But Amy'd be angry if I gave the little poseur cataracts, I suppose.

Still, if I just shined a bit on a leg or arm…And he actually did burn…?

Cooper…Jealousy is burning out the circuits in your magnificent brain. Besides, the cross Stuart tried last night didn't have any effect. Nonsense. And that ridiculously lame explanation he got from his "occult informant", that Andrew fellow afterward. 'Spike's got his soul back, he's ok. We got him a spot teaching in Pasadena."

Much more sensible to focus on exploding his brain…Sheldon nodded to himself. Or perhaps a little more persuasion in the form of my patented ju-jitsu moves…

Vampire indeed… And what a name for a vampire… "William the Bloody" nicknamed "Spike".

Please. Now, "Dracula" or even "Lestat"…There's a name for a vampire. Or that other one Stuart mentioned…Another one supposed to have soul…And no doubt, rhythm, too. Angelus? Even that's better.

Ummn…The instructor caught sight of the young woman usually hidden by the pillar…She staring back a second, hastily pulling up her copy of 'Ulysses' to conceal face.

"Ummn…Yes…That this affection may at times lose its force does not invalidate it. Dante claimed that Adam and Eve's paradise lasted only six hours and Proust reminds us that the only true paradise." he stared again, a moment…

"…is the one we have lost…But, the word know to all men has been defined and affirmed, regardless of whether or not it may be subject to diminution."

"Profound, isn't he?" Amy leaning to Penny, whisper.

"Yeah, beautiful…" Penny nodded. "I mean, 'profound'. Say, how do you spell 'Aquinas'?"

"You might try spelling it L-e-o-n-a-r-d." Sheldon hissed…Glare.

"Say, he's good…" Dawn hissed. Pulling hat down as the instructor eyed her as well.

Jesus…William blinked.

Yeah…She grinned back. It's us, Walthrop. And damned about time you caught on.

"He went to Cambridge…" Buffy replied, a tad proudly, adjusting her brunette wig.

"How do you spell 'Aquinas'?" she whispered.