Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm tired of coming up with catchy ways to say so.
A/N: This part set during Sanctuary.

Part 12: The Flip Side

If you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
Because your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone

- Evanescence, "My Immortal"

Passion was dangerous. She ought to have learned that by now. The brighter the fire, the more chance one stood of being burned. Everything has a price.

The flip side of devotion is heartbreak. The flip side of trust is betrayal. The flip side of passionate love is passionate hate. Buffy was experiencing all three right now.

She was nothing if not well acquainted with the dangers of passion by now. She'd burned more than once in her relationship with Angel. But it was always more than worth it.

It wasn't worth it today. Everything about this visit had gone from bad to worse, and she was experiencing only the ugly flip side of all those emotions that still welled up, unbidden, and threatened to overwhelm her whenever she saw him again.

She was shocked and indignant when she was him helping Faith. She'd been the one who kept trying to help her sister Slayer, and she'd only gotten betrayal – multiple betrayals – for her troubles. But by the time they reached the police station, she was a couple hundred degrees past pissed off, and it wasn't even about Faith anymore.

It was him calling her "no one" that finally made her crack. How could he be so cool, like none of this really mattered? She'd expected his anger. Heck, she'd wanted his anger. At least it would show he cared. She couldn't deal with this indifference. Here she was, after a year of doing everything she could to forget him, after supposedly having moved on, and she was boiling over with rage because she still loved him so much it hurt to think about. Meanwhile, he was standing there like he didn't even care about her.

And so she did the only thing she could think of, the course of action she knew was idiotic and immature, if effective. In one last desperate attempt to provoke a response, to bring out some proof he cared, she tore into him with every cutting detail of her new life she could think of. If she was still this thrown by him, he was darn well gonna be thrown by her too.