Chapter 21 A

/Angel's POV/

It was all so bizarre. I thought I had lost Buffy forever. When she walked out on me a few years ago, she had said for me not to find her. Back then, of course, I searched everywhere for her. I virtually tore L.A. apart, questioning all of her friends and neighbors. She hadn't told a soul where she was moving. I guess I could have considered myself lucky that she even told me- well, let me know that she was moving.

After so long, I stopped searching for her. That was when I started to see other girls. None of them held a candle to Buffy of course, but still I compared them and quickly grew tired of them one by one. None of them mattered, they were just a warm body to fuck each night and I could pretend that it was her that I was holding in my arms at night. I'd wake up in the morning and of course, it wasn't her.

My twin brother, Angelus, moved in with me at one point. He said that it would do us some good to live together. We could get close again, hang out, party, scam chicks, party. You know? Have a good life. Boy, were we stupid. You see, back then, my brother and I were extremely similar. We both liked to drink, get high, screw hot chicks and call it a night. That was, until I got in that accident.

I was driving home one night from a party by myself, and I was just listening to my music, kind of tired, but not drowsy. I bent down to get my cell phone and when I looked back up, there was a deer in the middle of the road. I swerved to miss it and went down in a ditch that managed to flip my car over once. Needless to say, the next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital.

After that, my whole life changed. I decided no more drugs, no more consecutive one-night stands. I wasn't going to be a choir-boy, but I definitely had an eye-opening experience. I had never been so utterly scared in all of my life and I decided that if I ever had the chance to see Buffy again, I would tell her how much of a fucking asshole I was and not that I would expect her to ever forgive me, but to possibly start over.

Angelus didn't understand the way that I decided to approach life and I didn't think highly of the way he lived his anymore, so he moved out and we haven't spoken since. That was about a year ago.

I still had my job at the auto shop and one night, late after work, I signed on-line to check my e-mail. There, out of the clear blue, this person sent me an instant message. I didn't recognize the name, but they introduced themselves and she told me we had a mutual friend. That made it a little easier. Soon we got to talking almost every day, and I felt a real connection to her. One I hadn't had in a long time.

When she told me about her birthday, I had originally wanted to say no, and come anyway, but I decided against it for some reason and said yes. A day or two later, my boss from the shop called me and told me that one of the weekend mechanics couldn't make it and he'd pay me extra to come in. Unfortunately, I had to tell her that I couldn't make it after all. The next day, my boss called me and told me that he didn't need me after all. So, I went home, changed, got in the car and drove to Sunnydale.

Now, here I am.

There she is, in front of me. "The girl that got away," so to speak. Not that I did much to convince her to stay, or treat her in the way that I should have. How it happened I'm not sure. One minute she was saying that she had to go back to her boyfriend, I was trying to convince her to stay and talk to me. When she said that going back to her boyfriend was more important than staying with me and realizing that we've been talking for months but not knowing who it was, I grabbed her and kissed her to show just how important it was.

That's when we were interrupted.

21 B

/Ford's POV/

There we were; all five or six of us. We were waiting for Buffy to finally show up. The original plan was for me to pick her up and bring her back here. Unfortunately I was the only one at the last minute who could go pick up her cake from the bakery. Immediately I called her house to let her know the change of plans.

I got her machine. I absolutely hate to leave messages. Even in emergencies. Assuming she was in the shower and that's why she couldn't pick up the phone, I left her a quick message explaining to meet me at the Bronze at eight.

It was ten after eight and still Buffy hadn't show up. It wasn't like Buffy to be late. It *was* always possible that she didn't get my message. Thought if she hadn't, she would have called my cell by then and bitched at me for being late. Something definitely wasn't right.

"I'm gonna go find her!" I shouted to the gang as I left the Bronze and headed out to get my girl.

Leaving the Bronze, I jogged as fast as I could to Revello Drive. It was almost like something out of some movie. All I could hear were my size eleven feet hitting the cold pavement in the blackness of the night with only the streetlamp as my company.

I could feel it in my gut. Something wasn't right. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was, but I knew. It was kind of like having a swarm of bees in my stomach. One wrong move and I would be stung all over.

Finally, I reached her house. Taking a second to take a deep breath and compose myself, I stepped to her walkway.

There she was. She was standing in front of her house, looking as beautiful as she always had. Her long blonde locks were blowing ever so slightly in the almost non-existent breeze. There she was- talking with another man!

"What the hell?" I thought to myself.

He appeared to be about six feet tall and had short spiky brown hair and broad shoulders. This was no small man. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good look at his face, as his back was turned away from me.

They looked to be in the middle of a conversation. I strained to try and make out the topic but it was no such luck. Obviously what ever they were talking about was private and they didn't want anyone to hear it. I respected that. I may not have liked it, but I respected it. Some things, some topics, you don't go screaming about in the neighborhood. There was just one tiny problem.

"WHO the FUCK is this guy?" I shouted to myself in my head.

Looking back up at my girlfriend and the strange man, I gasped at the sight in front of me. His lips were on hers. His dirty, disgusting lips were on hers and it made me see RED.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" I screamed, exposing them to my presence.

Buffy immediately broke their kiss as soon as she heard my voice. She looked at me with complete and utter fear in her gorgeous green eyes. I had never seen her look so scared in the entire time I'd known her.

Then, he turned around.

21 C

/Buffy's POV/

My heart literally stopped beating. I kept beating myself up. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let Angel kiss me? After all the time that it took me to get over him and after all the time I spent with Ford? I mean, I won't lie and say that I never loved Angel, but I LOVED Angel. I LOVE Ford. How did this happen?

I knew it looked bad. I knew exactly how Ford was feeling, because I had felt it too once upon a time. I remember walking into that apartment room and finding Angel in bed with my best friend. I remember how angry I was, and how betrayed I had felt. I remember how my heart literally sank at the sight of them together and I remember how even though I was so hurt, I didn't have the strength or courage to walk away.

"Ford-" I started to apologize, but was instantly cut off.

"YOU'RE Ford?" Angel asked disbelievingly, a bit of his old self creeping back into his system. There was something about me that just made his possessive button turn on. I had always found it incredibly annoying and incredibly sexy. Now I just found it insulting.

Ford sized Angel up and down and I can't be sure what he was thinking but it looked like he was trying to determine if he could take him in a fight. I've seen Angel fight and I know that as big as Angel looks, he can handle someone bigger then himself. Though, I have seen Ford take someone close to Angel's size, so it would be an interesting fight to watch. Oh! There could be oil of some kind involved.

"Get a grip Buffy!" I shouted to myself. I turned my attention back to Angel and Ford who had engaged in some sort of shouting match as I had drifted off.

"What's it to you who I am?" Ford asked Angel not afraid and not backing down from the slightly larger man in front of him.

Putting on his smug face, Angel chuckled slightly and backed off a little bit. Seeing that, Ford took the next step and got in Angel's face. "Who the hell are you? Who the hell is this guy Buffy?"

"Oh you've found a real winner with this one Buffy," Angel mocked. "What? You didn't tell him about me? You didn't tell him how you left me high and dry with no way of getting in touch with you after being together for a year? How I woke up to find you in bed next to me and all I found was a note?"

"See! This is exactly why I did that! You lied! You haven't changed a bit! You're still the same disgusting, possessive asshole that I left two years ago! You think that my whole world revolves around you! Well guess what Angel? I've moved on!" I declared to him. I hoped that Ford got the message as well that I had moved onto him and that I loved him deeply.

Ford looked at me like I had just stuck him with a ten foot fishing pole in the gut. His eyes were so wide that I thought they were going to go off of his face. The look of surprise was evident, but it was that shocked surprise that coursed through him. Clearly that wasn't something he was expecting.

"This is *him* Buffy?" he gritted through his teeth.

I simply nodded my head.

"You son of a bitch!" Ford shouted at Angel as he advanced onto him. Ford pulled his right hand back and hit Angel square in the jaw with his right cross. "Do you have ANY idea what you did to this girl? Do you have ANY idea what kind of damage you did to this girl's psyche?"

With Angel on the ground, I grabbed Ford to hold him back from continuing the fight.

"Let's just go Ford, please?" I begged and pleaded with him. Surprisingly I was a little afraid of Ford at the moment. I had never seen him look so- possessed almost. His eyes were a near shade of black and he looked like he could kill Angel just by looking at him.

"Why were you kissing him?" Ford ignored my plea or fleeing the scene.

I took a breath and explained the situation, "I didn't kiss him! He kissed me! As soon as it started it ended with you shouting at us! I didn't know he was coming here Ford, I swear. You know that guy I told you about, that I was talking to on-line?"

"Yeah,"

"Well fate must really hate me because he's on the ground right now next to you," I explained.

Ford looked at me, looked at the guy starting to get up off the ground and laughed hysterically.

"What's so funny?" Angel asked angrily as he reached his full height.

"LIFE!" Ford declared yelling it out into the night sky. "Life," he paused, "is funny. Life, has a way of throwing you the dramatic ironies it owns. Out of all the possible people for her to meet and start talking to on-line, it HAD to be you!"

"Ford, if I had known, I wouldn't have been talking to him," I tried to reassure my boyfriend. I put on my best front that I despised the larger man aside my boyfriend. Internally I pondered if that was really true.

Angel looked at me and I could see the evident hurt in his eyes and while I was slightly triumphant that I had slightly hurt him after all the pain he had caused me, I saw understanding in his eyes as well. Could it really be true? Could he really have changed? He had been as equally shocked to see me tonight, so it was highly unlikely that he had been expecting to find me at this house tonight. Maybe…

"Look Buffy, I'm gonna go back to the Bronze and tell them that you're not coming. Then I'm gonna go to my house and I don't want you to call or come by. I just, need some time to think things out." Ford told me regretfully. I could see that it was hard for him, but he was saying it anyway.

"Fo-" I started to object but he cut me off.

"I know it wasn't your fault, and I know it just turned out to be a bizarre situation, but to see you kiss him and I don't care who kissed whom Buffy- His lips were on yours for however long, he obviously still has feelings for you,"

"I don't care!" I protested! "Ford! I LOVE YOU! Please don't do something because of circumstances beyond my or your control! I don't want to risk losing you over something this stupid!"

"Buffy!" Ford shouted, "I know this isn't stupid! I KNOW what HE once meant to you!" Disgust clearly came out in his voice as he glared at Angel who had decided to remain silent during their discussion.

"MEANT! Ford you just said it! MEANT to me! Do you know what you MEAN to me?" I asked him almost defeated. I had to make him understand that I was in love with him and NOT Angel. At least not anymore, I thought.

Ford took a breath and started once again, "I love you Buffy," I could see the difficulty he was having as he told me, "I'll call you tomorrow," as he walked away.