Author's Note: First time writing this particular Doctor incarnation, in this chapter. Somehow, he just worked for this scene. I don't know why.

Enjoy!

Now

Xander strutted into the library, beaming. "Hey, guys! Guess who didn't get selected for the monthly blood-sacrifice?" He pointed his thumbs at himself. "This guy!"

Willow bit her lower lip. She looked away.

"Xander," Buffy said, pointedly, nodding over at Willow.

Xander hesitated. "Yeah, right… sorry, Will." He dropped his backpack to the ground, and sat — putting his feet up on the table. "Just — when my name came up on the short list, I thought I was a goner."

Buffy jumped up from her seat and went over to Willow, who was busy putting away books. "Will…" She put a hand on Willow's shoulder. "We won't let your dad get sacrificed. I promise."

The library fell silent.

Giles coughed, a little alarmed. "Buffy, you know the penalty for speaking openly, like that."

"Vacation to a radioactive wasteland, anyone?" Xander put in. He grabbed up some homework and pretended to be working — pointedly not looking at Buffy. "Or, maybe, we'll get lucky and just be slaughtered in the street." He shrugged. "I hear that's the cool way to die, these days."

Buffy bunched her hands into fists. "Well, maybe it's time someone should say it. I mean, we all know Will's dad is only getting sacrificed because Will knows me."

"No, no, I'm sure it's not…" Willow put in, hurriedly. But she couldn't finish her sentence, as she pushed the next book into the bookshelf.

Giles shuffled, a little awkwardly. "Yes, well… it's well known that being your friend can be… really rather dangerous."

Buffy spun on Giles, as a fire rose up inside of her. "But I don't want it to be dangerous to be my friend," she said. "I'm not going to just keep accepting that people should get massacred, because they're nice to me!" She threw open her arms. "Do you know how many times I've been driven out of town by an angry mob, just because people couldn't take it, anymore? I can't let this be my life. I won't!"

Giles put his glasses back on and came up to Buffy, with a sigh. "Buffy," he said, softly, "I know you're cross, but there are things you simply cannot say — not even in anger. By all rights, Sunnydale should be a radioactive crater, uninhabitable for thousands of years. We only remain alive because…"

"I know why Sunnydale's still alive," Buffy grumbled. "To torture me." She shuffled back over to the table and sat down, in a chair. "Sometimes, I think that's the only reason anyone on Earth is still alive."

Everyone in the library went quiet.

"I just want to get close to someone, for once," Buffy said. "That's all I ask. A moment of happiness that isn't ruined by death and slaughter and torture." She shook her head. "But it's never going to happen, is it? You guys can't even meet with me, here, except by claiming we're in 'detention' together."

Willow still didn't stop putting away books into the shelves.

Xander kept pretending he was doing his homework.

"This is simply the reality of the world you live in, Buffy," Giles apologized. "I hope, someday, you can accept that." He took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Just as I have accepted that, by becoming your Watcher, I have less than a year left to live."

Buffy was in English class when she heard the announcement on the loudspeaker — commanding her to report to Principal Snyder's office.

"You know, this is the part of my job that I love the most," Snyder said, when she sat down. He picked up the letter, relishing it, as he read it aloud. "'Buffy Summers,' it says, here, 'is too happy. Please fail her at one of her major courses, and rough her up with a full-cavity drug search.'" He gestured at the two big-muscled guys standing near Buffy. "Boys."

Buffy let one of them grab her by the arms, so she could gain enough leverage to kick the other across the room, and then elbowed the first in the gut and punched him in the face.

Snyder shook his head. "And that has earned you detention, young lady." He frowned. "I wish I could say expulsion, but I am under orders to keep you in my school and make your life as thoroughly miserable as possible."

Buffy glared at him.

"Think long and hard about your future, Miss Summers," Principal Snyder said, leaning back in his chair. "Your grades are dismal. Your prospects are shot. Ostracized as you are, I don't even think you could settle down and have kids!" He crossed his arms. "So do you want to play ball, here — or are you going to keep fighting, and end your days in a prison cell?"

Buffy dropped her head, weaving her hands through her hair. She figured he was probably right about the cell. And she knew who'd be in the cell next to her.

"My future," Buffy repeated, dully. "When, in my life, have I ever not thought about my future?"

That night, Buffy flipped a vampire over her back, then spun around and staked it. Another one came at her from behind, and she kicked at it, throwing it back against a wall and then roundhousing over and staking it through the heart.

A cough, from her right.

Buffy's eyes lit up, as she turned. When she saw who it was, her face fell. "Oh. It's just you." She put away her stake. "Come here for another round of the misery blues?" She sat down on a tombstone. "Or is there something really evil out there, and you're around to help me fight it?"

He seemed a little irritated by her flippancy. "You were hoping I was Angel, weren't you?" He sighed and sat down on the tombstone next to her. "You really are useless as a teenager."

"Yeah, and you're way nicer when you're not Mr. Scottish-Bad-Attitude-Hobo-Magician!" Buffy snapped. She huffed, crossing her arms. "I like Angel. He's kind of cool, with a whole heroic good-guy mystery persona thing going on."

"You do realize he isn't the sort of person you should be dating?" the Doctor told her. "Not only are you just 16, while he's over 200 — Angel is also a very, very bad man."

Buffy stuck out her tongue. "Thanks, dad."

"Don't believe me? Ask him about Drusilla." The Doctor reflected. Then, gave a small smile. "Actually, do ask him about Drusilla. I'd honestly like to know the answer to that."

"I know he did some bad stuff in the past," Buffy said, "but he's different, now. He's got a soul."

The Doctor shook his head. "This is going to end badly," he warned her, "for both of us. Angel is going to be her latest way to hurt you — and you're playing right into her hands."

Buffy didn't believe that for one second. "You're just saying that."

"Just saying that? Why would I be just saying that?" The Doctor rested his elbows on his knees. "You do realize we're both in the same boat, here, right? If you do something bone-headedly thick, we'll both suffer."

Buffy had already tuned him out, and was looking around, hoping to find Angel.

"Oh, forget it!" The Doctor got up, now looking extremely frustrated. "I can't talk to you when you're this age. It's all just boys, hair, and makeup!" He took out his sonic screwdriver. "I know she crashed my TARDIS here for a reason — probably to do something deeply unpleasant and agonizingly painful to me. So I'm going to get on with that. Probably make me feel better than spending an hour listening to you fawn over your vampire boy-toy."

He left.

Buffy dropped her head. She'd had a really hard day, today — she was hoping to get one of the nicer incarnations of the Doctor. She didn't need this.

"He seemed grumpy."

Buffy's eyes lit up at the voice, and she jumped to her feet. Here he was! Angel. She suddenly realized she was looking way too eager and not remotely cool, and she dialed back down her enthusiasm.

"He's got a reason to be, after what's been done to him," Buffy said. "I mean, I feel pretty grumpy, most of the time. Except around you." She let him take her in his arms and rested her head against his chest. "I had a dream about you last night."

Angel shot her an interested look. "A dream?"

"I watched you die," Buffy said. "It was horrible." She frowned. "Then we opened a furniture store together. That was kind of weird." She looked up at him. "You're not of the furniture-store variety, right?"

"I don't usually think much about furniture," Angel admitted. He looked down at her, pulling a fallen strand of hair out of her eyes. "You're sure you're okay?"

"Better with you," Buffy said. Her eyes went unfocused, and she frowned. "Who's… Drusilla?"

Angel suddenly went very, very still.

"I mean, if you don't want to talk about it," Buffy said, "it's fine. Just — the Doctor said I should ask."

"I didn't realize he knew," Angel muttered. He released her, and stepped away, putting his hands into his pockets. "Well, I guess if I don't tell you, he will. Drusilla was… a mistake. A horrible, evil, twisted mistake."

Buffy had figured that. "Someone you killed?"

Angel said nothing for a long moment. Then, very quietly, admitted, "Something a little worse than that."

Buffy waited for him to go on, but he didn't.

Buffy just nodded, slowly. "Okay. I get it. You don't wanna talk, and I've been having a bad enough day as is, so I'm just as happy to call this off. Just — one thing. She's not going to… show up or anything. Right?"

"I really don't know," Angel admitted. "She'll certainly recognize me, if she does." He met Buffy's eyes with his own. "Do you still love me?"

She did.

She just kept getting the feeling like… there was something she really was missing, here.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at Angel, as he saw him lingering outside the TARDIS. "Oh, look who it is!" When he noticed Angel was about to speak, he cut him off. "No, don't say anything. There's nothing you can say that'll make this any easier on either me or Elizabeth. So why don't you do us both a favor and bog off?"

The Doctor shoved the key in the lock.

Angel grabbed the Doctor by the arm, before he could enter. "What did you tell her about Drusilla?"

The Doctor paused, some of the hostility dropping from his face, replaced by curiosity. "What should I have told her?" He raised his eyebrows. "Is there even anything to tell?"

"I thought…" Angel swallowed. "I thought you already knew what I did."

"Ah, but this isn't your universe or your timeline," the Doctor said. "Is it, Angel? I certainly wish it wasn't mine."

He suddenly looked… very, very sad. And very old.

He snapped his eyes over to Angel.

"My friends," the Doctor said, "have all been massacred. Most, in front of my eyes. Sarah Jane Smith, Perri Brown, Amy Pond, my granddaughter, and countless more. My planet — once saved — has now been unsaved. Everything I ever had has been torn away from me." He looked back at his TARDIS. "And all because of you and Drusilla."

Angel had no idea what he was talking about.

"I once asked you if you were thick, or just heartless," the Doctor said, opening the door. "Now, I know you're both."

With that, he walked into the TARDIS and shut the door.

Then dematerialized.