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'The one where Angel was a pervy old man', LOL!
Chapter 60- Carpe Noctem
"Here comes the 4th one of this year", Buffy said as she turned the 4th recording on.
Cordelia was looking through a magazine, Wesley was reading a book and Gunn was playing a hand-held video game. Fred came down the stairs and walked up to Cordelia. Cordelia jumped and let out a scream as Fred leaned in to look at the magazine. Wesley jumped and looked around at them as Gunn greeted Fred and she apologized, and then looking at the open magazine said she'd starved for years in a cave, what was the excuse of the women in the magazine.
That made everyone laugh a little as Buffy said. "Yeah, lay into unrealistic beauty standards, girl."
"Well, at least she's the one making others jumpy now", Willow pointed out with a chuckle.
Cordelia told her it was fashion and that Angel was upstairs as Fred praised him when Angel arrived, holding a newspaper where he told them of Charles Heston's Double Feature, and Fred was the only one excited to come with him, so he decided to go with her, commenting the worm had turned regarding himself and his team.
"Or maybe they just aren't into old guy stuff", Xander said, only for Giles to glare at him. "Which is not nice at all. Old is gold!"
That brought some more chuckles.
"I think Fred's mistaking this for a date", Tara pointed out, and that was when it hit the others too.
"Well, it's not", Dawn muttered.
"She doesn't know that", Willow pointed out.
A young man was in a hotel with 2 girls, and both wanted a little minute for a breather, to which he agreed so he got out of bed to pour himself a martini, and then asked if they were ready for a round 4, before suddenly hunching over in pain and chanting something. A stream of red-white energy issued forth from his eyes and mouth. The stream cut off and the guy turned to look at the girls watching wide-eyed from the bed. The girls started to scream as the guy began to steam and his body began to deflate into a puddle of skin on the ground.
"Oh my….what did I just watch?" Xander said in horror.
"How the hell did that happen?" Dawn wondered.
"He was chanting a spell", Willow noted. "I don't know what exactly, but it seemed to have done something."
"And I don't think he was trying to kill himself", Tara added.
"So what could it be?" Buffy wondered.
"Let's find out", Giles told her.
Wesley listened to Fred who told him everything Angel had done for her the previous night, and it was comfortable and quiet. Angel was reading the newspaper in the lobby as Cordelia told him he had to talk to Fred, and Cordelia told Angel that Fred thought the previous night was a date, surprising him. Angel thought Fred was just too enthusiastic but Cordelia pointed out that Fred had puppy love due to all his good qualities, but then also listed the bad ones, calling him a eunuch, offending him, though it was just a figure of speech, but Angel told her to find a better one.
"Eunuc-" Willow, Tara, Xander and Dawn all started together as Buffy's face turned humorless.
"You will all die brutal deaths and they will look like accidents", Buffy spoke up and they shut up.
Giles chuckled in amusement.
Cordelia said sex wasn't for Angel due to his curse, and so there had to be a talk with Fred. Angel asked her to do it but Cordelia pointed out it had to be him, and then she pulled him into Wesley's office, but he pointed Wesley's attention to a dead guy in the newspaper who'd been found dead in hotel suite one day ago, his insides having collapsed, and Wesley said something similar had happened one week ago too. The two agreed to take a closer look as Angel handed Cordelia the file with the older newspaper clipping and walked off as she hurried after him.
"Fighting evil, yes. Talking to Fred about her crush, no", Buffy said with a chuckle. "He is so funny."
"Like the time he danced in his mind", Dawn reminded, making them laugh again.
At Wolfram and Hart, Gavin greeted Lilah, who was still condescending to him, and he told her there was more to his plan than just code violations, as Angel had no social security number or tax payer ID, it was like he didn't even exist. So he was the rat and they were the maze, but Lilah still wasn't interested so he walked off.
"Huh, he does have a point, Angel doesn't exist legally", Willow said in realization.
"Downside of being a Vampire I guess", Buffy said with a sigh.
"Gavin has a weapon to use then", Tara muttered grimly.
Lilah then went to her secretary and asked her to get a forger called Carter Williams on the phone.
"Forger", Giles muttered as they realized what she was going to do. "She's going to give Angel a legal identity."
"To stick it to Gavin", Xander realized.
"Well, her plans against Angel usually go more personal, so I can't tell which is worse", Buffy sighed.
At Hyperion, Cordelia took a printout from the printer and walked to the others as Wesley said there had been another victim weeks ago and all were healthy males who died in expensive hotel suites. Wesley told Gunn to interview the hotel staff where these people had died and he'd meet his contact from the coroner's office. Cordelia also noted the dead people were members of the same health club, so she and Angel agreed to check out the gym. Everyone left except Fred who had nothing to do and said with a laugh she'd stay there.
"Oh don't worry, I had nothing to do for a while either, now I do, and so will you", Dawn assured Fred.
"Once she has dealt with her issues, I'm sure there's a lot she can do", Willow said with a smile.
"From what you say, she's basically you without the magic", Tara said to Willow.
"Yeah, that's true, she is a science expert instead", Willow explained.
Angel and Cordelia were later at the health club as Cordelia told Angel he couldn't keep ignoring Fred like that, but her lecture was cut short when a male gym member walked by so she walked off to question him instead.
Everyone shared chuckles at that.
Angel walked to a club attendant and introduced himself, and he started promoting an offer first before Angel pulled out the newspaper clipping of the dead guy, and the attendant knew of it while Angel mentioned the others and asked if the club condoned steroid use, but was assured it didn't, so he decided to take a look at the records and go, and the attendant agreed, while Cordelia asked 2 guys if they'd seen anything suspicious or green or scaly, making them exchange a weird look.
"Uhhhh, I don't think that kind of question is going to fly with people who don't know about the supernatural", Buffy said lamely.
"Doesn't hurt to try", Xander shrugged.
Angel and the attendant looked through some papers and the only connection between the dead people seemed to be that they were members of the club. Angel was a bit confused between Tae-bo and Pilates.
That brought some more chuckles.
Angel walked into a room where people were part of an exercise class and circled the room, looking out of the big window at the back of the room. He saw light reflecting off a pair of circles in one of the windows of the building across the street, then looked at the sign in front of the other building: Monserrat, retirement community. Cordelia was talking to 4 guys and getting their numbers as Angel came behind her and told her where he was headed, and she could join him after she was finished here before walking off as Cordelia said he just worked with her.
"So she works and sets herself up on dates at the same time", Dawn said with a chuckle. "She is so smart."
"Yup, that's next level", Willow chuckled.
Angel looked at the window of the retirement home where he saw the reflection and knocked at Room 316 where a Marcus Roscoe lived, and an old man wearing big round glasses opened the door. Angel introduced himself and gave Roscoe his business card as he was let in, Marcus inviting him as Angel noted the view, finding some binoculars to which Marcus said there was no harm in looking. Angel then gave Marcus the files on the dead men but he hadn't seen any of them and said he was a girl-watcher, and they were all dead, to his surprise. Angel informed he was a private investigator to which Marcus said he was a salesman who worked alone for 50 years. Angel noticed a Nothian herb jar, asking if Marcus dealt in the occult.
"There's something off about him", Tara said.
"Well, for one, he's a perv", Buffy shrugged.
"Yeah, that, but there's more", Willow said.
Angel asked some more questions before Marcus stepped closer and chanted a spell. Angel started. "You might wanna think twice about trying to cast a sp..." Red-white light streamed from Marcus into Angel, while blue-white light streamed from Angel to Marcus. After the light vanished, Angel looked around, shrugging his shoulders. Marcus stared at Angel, eyes slightly squinted. "You are me." 'Angel' grabs 'Marcus' by the shoulders and head-butted him, then lowers the unconscious old man into a chair. "That's gonna smart later."
"Oh…God!" Buffy snapped as it hit them all.
"Did he just…?" Dawn asked.
"They exchanged bodies", Giles said in realization. "Or rather he exchanged their bodies forcefully."
"So he is the one who's responsible for those men dying", Willow summed up.
"He takes their bodies, uses them for sex and stuff, then they die and he returns", Xander realized before his eye widened. "So will Angel die too?"
"The other victims were human, I don't think a Vampire will be affected the same way", Tara pointed out to him.
Marcus as Angel walked out of the retirement home's gate and then Cordelia from the convertible called out to him, telling him she had a 2 month free trial membership and some new friends but nothing more. Marcus then sat with her as she said they were gonna go back to the hotel and he agreed with a grin, thinking it was a date as they left.
"He's a perv, get away from him!" Dawn said.
"I don't think one weird conversation is gonna do anything", Buffy told her.
"I'm afraid of the mess this guy will make as Angel", Tara said with a gulp.
"Well, as long as they all know it was someone else and not like when Clark and Lionel swapped bodies", Xander said, referencing to Smallville.
"Oh yeah, that was brutal", Willow said in agreement with Xander.
Later, Marcus followed Cordelia into the Hyperion's lobby and thought they were going to have sex here, making weird comments as Cordelia mentioned Wesley and Gunn, and then Marcus noticed the 'Angel Investigations' business cards, realizing Cordelia was a worker in this agency, and then called her a very beautiful woman, to which she said he'd never said anything like that to Fred but still had to talk with her, and all he had to say was he wasn't like other men and work left little time for romance. With that, she walked off as Marcus wondered if this guy was gay.
That made them all chuckle again as Willow said. "Well, yeah, Fred is a masculine name."
"And they don't call her by her full name", Buffy added. "Which is 'Winifred'."
"So, which guy is he gonna mistake as Fred?" Xander asked.
"Well, as long as it exposes him, I'm all good", Dawn told them.
Angel as Marcus woke up in his chair, looked around and tried to get up but didn't make it. He tried again but still couldn't just get up. Then he put his hands on the arms of the chair and levered himself to his feet. He walked over to look in a mirror but only saw a blurry man-shape. He put on his glasses and watched Marcus' reflection become clear. Angel then sneaked through the lobby of the Monserrat to the receptionist desk, picked up the phone and dialed. Marcus was looking through papers back in Wesley's office. The phone rang but he let the machine get it.
"Why couldn't Cordy or Wes be here?" Buffy groaned.
"Now the old perv is gonna taunt him with his voice", Xander muttered.
Angel then begged Cordelia to pick up so Marcus picked it up, taunting Angel and told him to eat nice soft food and stay out of Ryan's way. Angel was confused when an orderly called Ryan took the phone from him, saying they'd just talked about this and now his phone privileges were gone for a month.
That made them all groan once more as Willow sighed. "Why is nothing ever easy?"
Marcus took the tape out of the answering machine and smashed it while Ryan lead Angel back to his room and Angel managed to convince him that he was Marcus as he knew his name. Ryan told Angel to keep it to himself if he thought he was a younger guy, and then told him to get back to bed.
"Unlike Angel, those poor guys didn't even know what hit them till it was too late", Tara said sadly.
"This old man has been ruining lives for God knows how long!" Giles said angrily. "He is misusing his power for what? Some romantic escapades with women?"
"Guess loneliness turned him pathetic", Buffy scoffed. "And also pervy."
Next morning, Cordelia arrived to see Marcus sleeping on Wesley's desk and woke him up, a page still stuck to his face which he took off, and then she told him to talk to Fred again. Wesley then arrived with an English teapot as Cordelia went off, and Marcus, thinking Wesley was Fred, started having the talk with him, saying he didn't have anything against him personally but whatever they had, they could leave it behind and start from scratch, being men working side by side without the funny stuff. The two then shook on that as Marcus pulled Wesley into a hug.
"Why couldn't he call him 'Fred' during this time?" Xander asked with a groan.
"Now I wonder what Wesley is thinking", Dawn muttered.
"I really don't wanna know", Buffy told her. "Why can't anyone tell when it's someone else though?"
"What are you talking about?" Giles asked.
"When Faith and I exchanged bodies, none of you could tell!" Buffy told them. "Well, other than Tara that is. Thanks Tara."
"No problem", Tara said with a smile.
"And none of you could tell the difference between me and a bot!" Buffy reminded them. "Other than Giles who was with me at the time."
"Uhhh…sorry?" Willow, Xander, Tara and Dawn half-asked, half-said.
"And Angel's team can't tell either", Buffy groaned.
Cordelia then called out to Wesley by name, shocking Marcus who asked where Fred was and Wesley said she was in her room, and Marcus now realized Fred was a 'she' before he followed Wesley out and Gunn had food. Marcus stuck money in his breast pocket, confusing him as Marcus munched on a burrito, his behavior confusing the others while Wesley and Gunn argued on who should interview the hookers these people had called, but then Cordelia decided she'd do it, wondering if all men were dogs, and Marcus spoke up to Wesley that women were more than just pieces of meat.
"You are one to talk", Buffy said to Marcus.
"Keeping up his nice guy act, huh?" Xander muttered. "Why aren't the others all over him?"
"Probably confused instead of alarmed", Willow told him.
Wesley's beeper went off as his contact from the morgue wanted to speak with him so he left with Gunn, and Cordelia walked out too while Marcus said he'd hold the fort, while eating some more of the burrito.
"Now I wonder if it's Fred who'll figure it out", Dawn wondered. "I mean, she has done a lot of stuff so far."
"I just hope he's found soon", Tara told her.
Angel as Marcus was sitting on a sofa in the lobby of the Monserrat with an open book on his lap. He saw the security guard at the desk by the doors get up to help an old lady with a walker accompanied by a younger woman through the door, watching as the guard helped them over to the elevators. He got up to head for the unguarded doors, but was intercepted by an old, black man being visited by his family, who introduced him to his baby granddaughter. Angel looked at the unoccupied guard desk and back at the baby before noticing the guard had returned.
All sighed sadly as Buffy said. "The guy had to introduce his granddaughter at this moment."
"Bad timing", Willow agreed with a nod.
Marcus as Angel was shredding newspaper clippings of the dead guys, and when that was done, sipped a martini when Fred arrived and Marcus flirted with her, calling her beautiful and asked Fred if she liked olives, offering one to her as she ate it out of his hand. He then told her they'd go out of town together, exciting her, and so she ran out of the office to change, while Marcus returned to shredding the files.
"He did the exact opposite of what was supposed to be done!" Dawn said, groaning.
"He's ruining it all!" Xander said angrily. "And I really hope this doesn't end like that Smallville episode."
"I don't think our lives are gonna be that bad", Buffy assured him.
Then Lilah arrived as Marcus turned the shredder off, checking her out and Lilah reminded business with Cordelia was just business. Lilah then dropped some folded papers in front of Marcus, insuring the hotel wasn't violating any codes now. Marcus picked up his martini glass and walked around the desk as Lilah assured she wasn't playing him and this was to get back at Gavin. Marcus thanked her as he offered her a glass, calling her beautiful as well. Lilah hesitantly took the glass and clinked it against his.
"How does he pick women up with just that one line?" Xander now wondered.
"It may have worked on Fred, but I don't see it working on Lilah", Tara agreed.
"Lilah really has some nerve walking in here after 'business' with Cordelia", Buffy told them.
"She has more balls than any guy working at the firm for sure", Willow quipped as all chuckled but agreed, since it was true.
Didn't mean anything good for Team Angel though.
Angel as Marcus was walking down some steps in the Monserrat. He peeked around the corner at the end of the hallway to see the security guard at the desk reading a newspaper, then scooted back away. He noticed the fire alarm on the wall, then glanced back at the guard station, and tripped the alarm. The alarm sounded and the guard jumped up from his desk and hurried away to look for the source. Angel shuffle-ran towards the desk and the exit. He looked down at his left arm, grabbing it with his other hand, starting to huff and puff. His heart was weakening and he slowly collapsed to the ground.
All groaned again as Dawn muttered. "And now a heart attack."
"Must be a weird sensation for him", Buffy muttered.
"Yes, I doubt he ever had any health problem before", Giles said in agreement.
"So now things have gotten worse", Xander sighed.
Lilah got up to leave but Marcus barred her way with his leg, and brushed the hair back from her face. Marcus stood up, leaning in close and kissed her. Lilah pulled away shaking her head a little. Marcus smiled at her then pulled her in for another kiss - which Lilah returned, passionately. They started groping each other. Lilah ripped Marcus' shirt open. Marcus swept the stuff on Wesley's desk to the side and pushed her down onto it. Fred walked up to the open door of Wesley's office, wearing a long dress, her long hair open, with a shy smile on her face. She walked in to see Marcus and Lilah groping wildly on top of Wesley's desk. Her eyes widened, then she turned and ran away.
"No!" Willow said, as everyone's mood plummeted even more.
"Why are they….?" Dawn questioned.
"Yeah, didn't she consider Angel her enemy?" Xander asked.
"Guess she isn't blind to his hotness", Buffy told him, disgusted by the sight, just like the rest.
"Now Fred's condition is even worse", Tara said sadly.
"All because of this sick man", Giles snarled.
Marcus suddenly vamped out and bit Lilah's neck and she backed off, holding a cross angrily, telling him he won't get this close to her again, and it actually made Marcus shy back. Lilah then walked off.
"Good going", Dawn said. "And this is the only time I'm cheering for Lilah of all people."
"But now…" Willow trailed off as they realized what had just happened.
Marcus touched the thickened brow on his forehead, then explored his face with his fingers, pricking his thumb on his fangs as he sucked on it, and then looked at himself in the mirror, only to see no reflection.
"And now he knows he's a Vampire", Buffy groaned. "Why is this happening?"
"He is getting abilities, and Angel is getting a heart attack", Tara sighed.
Angel as Marcus lay on the hospital bed, his IV monitor beeping as Ryan told him this was his fourth heart attack and he may not survive the next one if he tried this again.
"I really hope their bodies are swapped again when the 5th one comes", Xander sneered.
"Yeah, won't be losing any sleep over this old perv", Dawn agreed.
Cordelia returned to the Hyperion at night, making a quip about Julia Roberts, then found the lobby deserted and put her stuff down, only to hear sobbing noises as she opened the elevator doors to reveal Fred hunched up in a corner, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, crying. Cordelia asked her what was the matter as Fred ranted a little and Cordelia wondered if this was about Angel, and told her it was her fault as she'd told him to do that, and Fred asked if she'd told Angel to make out with the woman, shocking her.
"The woman that had you tortured", Buffy snarled angrily, the anger directed at Marcus obviously.
"Poor Fred", Dawn sighed, the position she was crying in reminding Dawn of the way she used to cry over Tara after her death for months.
"And he can't even be killed right now because then Angel would die", Xander muttered. "Someone switch their bodies!"
Marcus as Angel walked into a nightclub, moving with the music, then stopped by the bar and turned to survey the room. He spotted a pretty, dark haired girl sitting at a table with her boyfriend. The girl looked over at him and their eyes locked for a moment before she turned her attention back to her boyfriend. Marcus kept watching as the boyfriend got up, taking his empty glass with him. The girl looked back over at Marcus still standing by the bar. Some people walked past between them and after they were gone the girl's face fell as Marcus was gone as well, only to set a full martini glass down in front of her a moment later. Marcus was sitting with the girl at the table, whispering something in her ear. Under the table his hand was on her leg. Marcus later pulled the laughing girl after him out of the door to the club onto a balcony. The boyfriend and another guy walked up to the table to find it deserted. Marcus and the girl were kissing out in front of the club, the girl excited as her boyfriend could catch them.
"If that's exciting, I pity you", Willow scoffed at the girl.
"Yeah, I really don't know what people get by cheating", Tara agreed.
"Even I don't", Willow said, sharing a look with Xander as they remembered their own cheating incident, and they still didn't get why they had ever done that, since it was out of character for both of them. [1]
Marcus then turned Vamp and bit the girl, making her scream and pull back as the boyfriend and his friend arrived. Marcus morphed back into human face as he turned to face the two, licking the blood off his lips. The boyfriend hauled back to hit Marcus, but Marcus caught his fist in his hand, clamping down on it. The guy groaned in pain, then flew back as Marcus hit him. Marcus held up his fist and looked at it. He then stood there inviting the other two guys to hit him. He took a kick to the face from the first guy, then grabbed him by the throat, head butted him and tossed him aside. Then he walked right into the fist of the second guy, and returned the hit with a wide swing of his own then tossed that guy to the side as well and turned to face the boyfriend, scooting backwards away from him. He taunted the boyfriend and realized he'd be young and handsome forever but had to do something first. With that Marcus turned away, ran over to the railing, jumped on top, then off of it, only to easily land some stories below running down the street laughing.
"What's he gonna do?" Dawn asked.
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it's nothing good", Buffy said with a sigh.
At Hyperion, Wesley was in disbelief this had been done on his desk as Gunn reminded it used to be Angel's so he was reclaiming it. Wesley said this wasn't like him, but Cordelia said doing the mystery dance with a cheap blonde was like him, only for Fred to say it was a cheap brunette, at which point Cordelia agreed this wasn't like Angel.
"Hey, you're a cheap brunette doing the mystery dance with Angel", Buffy said, offended at being called 'cheap'.
"It's Cordelia speak, don't mind it", Willow told her.
"At least they know it's not like him", Tara pointed out.
Cordelia and Gunn thought he was Angelus again but then he hadn't killed the woman he was doing it with, and then Wesley showed books on Vampires scattered around, pointing out neither Angel nor Angelus would need to read those, at which point it clicked for them as Wesley said all the victims were also out of character before dying, and so Gunn realized Angel had been affected too. Wesley asked Cordelia about it and she remembered he'd gone into the retirement home for a bit.
"And now they know!" Dawn said excitedly. "They're gonna fix this!"
"I think Marcus is going to kill Angel", Giles said in realization as they looked at him. "He was destroying evidence of the deaths that happened due to him. Angel in his body is the last loose end."
"Oh boy!" Xander groaned.
"Well then, they must reach fast", Buffy said as they all tensed.
Angel as Marcus was trying to sneak down the hallway when Jackson stopped him, wondering why he never quit. Angel told him to not turn on him, but Jackson said his son had come to sign at the reception, shocking Angel as he turned to see Marcus as Angel talking to Ryan, and called him 'dad'.
"Oh you little creep", Dawn snarled.
"Now it's Angel's team who need to reach before Marcus does anything", Willow said.
Angel backed out of Marcus' view. Marcus slowly sauntered across the lobby after him, then turned the corner down a branch of a deserted hallway. He sniffed the air, then turned around, smiling, to enter the darkened rec-room. Angel was standing in the shadows besides the door. As Marcus turned on the light, Angel hit him over the head with a shuffleboard staff. Marcus was thrown off balance but caught Angel's next hit and pulled the staff from his hands. Angel staggered back. Angel then told Marcus he didn't know what he was getting into, but Marcus reminded Angel he used to be the worst Vampire and was now helping people instead of killing them.
"Which is why he is one of the best Vampires now", Buffy told him. "And you're not gonna get away with this."
Marcus held up a hand. "You may have the attitude, and you may have the power - but there is one thing you don't have, and never will: friends." Cordelia, Fred, Wesley and Gunn walked in through the door behind Marcus. "Four of them, standing behind you", Marcus spun around to look, "with big, heavy things." Marcus tried to get them to go off on Angel as him but they weren't fooled.
"Try that with someone who doesn't know him", Dawn smirked.
Marcus batted Gunn's crossbow aside and lifted his staff to push both Gunn and Wesley into the wall. Marcus dropped the staff and turned to run - right into Cordelia and Fred and their wooden baseball bats. Gunn used the shuffleboard staff to swipe Marcus' legs out from under him, dropping him. Marcus jumped back up, wrestling the bat away from Fred and turned with it towards Angel. Cordelia pulled out a tazer and hit Marcus with a charge of blue-white light. Marcus landed face down, in an unmoving heap at Angel's feet. Wesley asked about an Orb and Angel said it was in a room on a shrine. Fred hauled back and hit Marcus' body over the head, making Gunn jump.
"And now she had her revenge", Willow smirked.
"Now it's just the reverse ritual that remains", Tara summed up.
Later, they tied up the unconscious Marcus in Angel's body and Wesley had Angel in Marcus' body read the spell from a piece of paper, and light passed from their mouths to each other. Angel then woke up in his own body, assuring Gunn it was him and was untied while Cordelia gave Angel the conjuring stone. Marcus, awakened in his own body, protested but Angel crushed the stone as Marcus ranted he didn't deserve the body.
"He deserves it much more than a hundred of you all together", Buffy snarled at Marcus.
Angel told Marcus he had a weak heart because he never used it. With that, Angel turned and walked away with Cordelia, Fred, Gunn and Wesley behind him as Marcus yelled they were pathetic while Angel told him to keep a lid on the unhealthy rage. Marcus sank back into his chair, clutching his heart as Ryan arrived and asked what was happening and Angel quipped dad was having a bad night.
"Really hope it's his last, he deserves it", Xander said, zero sympathy in his voice.
"Things are fixed finally", Dawn said with a smile.
"Look, they didn't need magic to figure out that Angel was body swapped", Buffy said to them and they gulped, other than Tara.
Fred was sitting in the Hyperion's garden at night as Angel arrived, and she apologized for hitting him but he said he had it coming and then started to talk, but Fred already knew as Cordelia had told her because Angel would probably screw it up, and Angel said Cordelia was right. Fred said it was like Fitzgerald, who had everything but love, and in some ways he was better off, but heartache and disappointments were also good things to avoid.
"Everyone needs to experience stuff like that at least once to grow from it", Tara told them. "It's horrible but after pulling through, there is no better feeling."
"He has experienced those once, with me", Buffy reminded sadly. "We were just not for each other."
"Yeah, but you two know who you're for", Willow reminded her.
Cordelia came hurrying out and Angel and Fred turned their heads to look at her. Cordelia, a bit breathless said. "Angel, Willow's on the phone... She's alive! Buffy's alive!" With that Cordelia turned around and hurried back in. Angel and Fred looked at each other for a beat then Angel jumped up and ran into the hotel after Cordelia as Fred asked. "Buffy?" The screen went black.
"Long story, Fred, very long story", Xander said, shaking his head as everyone's moods rose.
"You're alive!" Dawn said to Buffy with a smile.
"Yeah, I told them of both, your death and your resurrection", Willow informed her.
"Thanks", Buffy said as she and Giles shared a look. "And sorry."
"For what?" Giles asked.
"Remember? I dumped my financial stuff on you to go meet Angel", Buffy reminded him.
"It's all right, you wanted to see him again after going through something traumatic", Giles assured as she smiled and kissed his cheek.
"This one had a better ending than the ones before", Tara said with a smile as she looked at Buffy. "Due to good news."
"Yeah, I feel better right now", Buffy agreed. "Anyone wanna eat?"
"You have to ask?" Xander asked as they chuckled and got up, moving away to eat.
The best body swap episode in Buffyverse is still the Buffy/Faith body swap, but this episode was hilarious, and it made our heroes cheer for Lilah for once, LOL!
[1] Just my dig at the bullshit Willow/Xander/Cordelia/Oz love square, which is one of the worst storylines in Buffy, if not the worst. Both Willow and Xander were written OOC to make the whole thing happen. If Willow/Xander had happened before Buffy 2x10, I could have bought it, but after that point, any attempt at romance between them would be forced, and it was. Xander never saw Willow as anything more than a friend and Willow was in a loving relationship with Oz at that point. The plotline was only done to break up Cordelia and Xander so she could move to Angel. Now I love Cordelia in Angel, and Angel/Cordelia is my OTP, but they could have thought of a better way to move her to Angel. I think Cordelia/Xander could have lasted up until Buffy 3x20 and there they could have had a peaceful breakup, because while I liked them, I don't think they were ever gonna last beyond high school. That plotline is the only thing I hate about Buffy Season 3, because counting that out it's my 2nd favorite Buffy Season behind Season 5.
Anyway, hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with the break chapter. Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!