Part 7
"Well..." Angel asked impatiently, "What did happen then?"
Buffy looked around at the now silent bar. Every demon in the place, including the host, was staring at them; using them for the nightly entertainment.
"Could we discuss this somewhere else? I don't exactly want to be the tomorrows gossip item in the demon community," she replied.
Angel didn't care that they were the center of attention, all he wanted was answers, but if Buffy needed privacy before she told him... then she'd get it.
"I know a place."
"Let's go," she told him.
Angel grabbed her arm and practically dragged her from Caritas and towards his place.
Willow and Oz were awoken by a loud banging noise coming from out front. They were both going to ignore it until they heard Faith yell.
"Come on, Wils. I really need to talk to you."
Willow turned to Oz, "I'd better see what's wrong."
"Just leave her be," Oz replied, "She'll find her own way."
"I feel responsible for her," Willow said getting up and grabbing her robe. "I won't be long."
Oz watched her go and called after her, "I'm here if you need me."
Five minutes later Angel dragged Buffy through the door of his apartment, the exact same one that he'd had when she'd lived in Sunnydale. Once he was through the door he turned to her.
"Tell me?"
It was the moment she'd been dreading for close to a decade. She knew that she had to tell him, but would he understand? Would anyone?
"This might take awhile," she told him moving past him and taking a seat in his small living room.
Angel took the hint and sat across from her, "I've got the time."
"Well, a couple of weeks before my birthday," Buffy began slowly. She needed to explain everything and rushing might make her forget somethings. "My mom was acting weird... even weirder than she usually did. I didn't know what was going on, at least not then."
She paused to take a breath and Angel waited for her to continue.
"I found out what was up with her a couple of days before my birthday, when my dad showed up out of no where. I hadn't seen him for six months and thought he just wanted to see me. Instead it turns out he had a new job, one that depended on a family man image... not a weekend dad one. The reason mom had been acting so nuts, was 'cause dad had sued her custody. My whole life had been decided behind my back. He wasn't there to see me... he was there to take me to LA."
"If you were in LA... why didn't you come see us?" Angel asked.
Buffy shook her head, "It's not that simple. I was in LA, for about three days. Dad's new job was in Washington."
Angel stared at her his eyes round in shock.
"Suddenly I found myself in strange town, stranger even than Sunnydale, with no friends and a whole new way of life to get used to. I even got a new watcher. I tried to call everyone, but Xander's parents thought I was some debt collector, no one was ever home at Willow's, Snyder had banned me from calling the school and I didn't know Giles' number."
"What about me?"
Buffy looked at him, "You didn't have a phone back then."
"You couldn't have written?" he asked her.
"I did write... no one answered, except Willow."
Angel shook his head, "I didn't get a letter."
"What *a* letter? I sent you one every day for a year," Buffy told him.
Angel looked at her in disbelief, "I never got one." He saw Buffy start to retreat away from him and tried to get her back on track, "What was your watcher like?"
"Wes?"
"Was that his name?" Angel asked.
"Yeah," Buffy replied. "I hated him. He tried so hard to be the perfect watcher that he... well, he screwed up more often than I did. It wasn't until after the council retired me and Wes found himself unemployed that he really found himself."
"Why was he unemployed? Didn't they just recall him?"
"He had a girlfriend and..."
"He didn't want to go back," Angel finished.
Buffy smiled for one brief second, "I actually like him now. He's the reason I even went to the academy."
"The academy?"
"The FBI... I work for them."
"Why? I mean how did he influence you?" Angel was curious how someone she hated at one time, suddenly had so much influence on her life.
Buffy was silent for a second. "I'd just finished college and didn't know what to do next. Every perspective employer saw that I'd burned down Hemery's gym and who wants to hire a person with pyromaniacal tendencies? Wes had a friend that worked for the Bureau and he got me an interview despite my record. Once they saw what I could do... they could sign me up fast enough."
Her explanation had answered some of his questions, but he had so many more. Why didn't she ever come back? Was she seeing anyone? Angel had a feeling that he wouldn't get all his answers tonight. Maybe not even anytime soon. However there was one thing he wanted to ask.
"You said Willow wrote?"
At her nod he continued, "She never told us."
"She didn't?"
"No," he replied. It was strange, why had Willow kept her correspondence with Buffy a secret from the gang.
Buffy shook her head, "That's strange."
"When did you stop writing?"
"College," Buffy told him. "Things just got so hectic..."
"I understand," Angel murmured.
They both sat there in silence wondering what was going on.
"Faith, what's wrong?" Willow asked as she let her friend inside.
Faith dropped the briefcase that she'd taken from Buffy's room and dragged her hand through her tangled hair. "Angel was right."
Willow was confused, it was two o'clock in the morning, not exactly the best time for conversations. "About what?"
"*Buffy*."
The confusion dropped, "It's her?"
"Yep," Faith said. "Along with a whole bunch of scary shit."
"What are you talking about?"
Faith picked up the briefcase and walked over to Willow and Oz's dining table. She laid it down and opened it. "I mean this!"
Willow looked inside and felt sick. "Oh My God."
"That's an understatement."
