A black, open convertible turned onto the courtyard in front of the big Victorian house a few miles outside Sunnydale. The door of the car opened, and a tall young man with dark hair and chocolate eyes stepped out of it. As if he of some reason wanted to bring out his dark appearance he wore a pair of black slacks and a tight black t-shirt.
He arrogantly went up the stairs to the door and punched in a code on the pad next to the door. With a quiet click the door opened and he stepped into a sunny hall with high windows and marble floor. Angel threw the car keys on a nearby table and opened a door to go enter an enormous living room, decorated with soft green colors. The walls were decorated with family portraits and his gaze immediately went to the biggest. It showed a little boy with shoulder-length dark brown hair and a smile on his lips.
"Cal," he whispered sadly.
As if the word itself was a spell, his thoughts were drawn to that terrible night so long ago, the night he had tried to forget for the past twelve years.
Angel opened his eyes and happily jumped out of his bed. He threw himself over to his twin brother Caliam and woke him up.
"It's morning!" he exclaimed when Caliam woke up.
His twin laughed and jumped out his bed too. Then they ran together down the stairs and into the living room where they came to an abrupt stop. In the middle of the room, a giant Christmas tree was standing, decorated with red, blue and yellow orbs and glittering garlands with a sparkling gold star on top. But the fact which caught the little boys' attention was all the gifts beneath the tree.
Angel turned and skipped up the stairs again and into the bedroom of his parents. Then he climbed into the bed and shook his mother to wake her up.
"Mom, Mom!" he delightedly exclaimed. "Santa has been here!"
His mother smiled sleepily at him and pushed a red strand of hair out of her face.
"That's great!" she said warmly. "Where did you leave Cal?"
"He stayed downstairs," Angel explained. "Hurry up, Mom! Dad, wake up! You have to come look! There's thousands of Christmas presents."
His mother laughed.
"Then you, Cal, Toni and Steph have to have been very nice this year," she commented. "Come on, little one, let's go wake your siblings. And if you're a good boy, you may get to open a gift before lunch too."
Angel looked at her with sparkling eyes.
"I'm good," he promised. "Can we go now?"
His mother pulled on her dressing gown and took his hand. They went out of the room and into the corridor outside and started to go towards his big sister Stephanie's room a little bit away when a petrifying scream was heard from down stairs. At the same time an incredible pain ripped Angel's body and he fell to the floor.
"Mom!" he cried. "What's going on?"
She worriedly looked at him and hugged him tightly to herself.
"I don't know, honey," she said softly. "Wait here for Mom, Angel, and I'll go see what's going on."
Angel nodded and curled himself to a ball in a corner while his mother quietly started to go down the stairs. He heard how she silently tipped around on her toes down there, looking into all the rooms. When a floorboard creaked he knew she was outside the living room. Suddenly he heard his mother make a quiet sob.
"No!" she exclaimed. "Cal!"
Forgetting his mother's order to stay, he started to run down the stairs. What had happened to Cal? Why did mom scream? He didn't understand! Mom was laying on the doorstep to the room, sleeping. Confused, he went over to her and shook her.
"Mom?" he asked. "What happened?"
When she didn't answer him, he rose and went into the living room to look for his twin brother.
"Caliam?" he called and started to walk towards the Christmas tree.
He rounded the couch and stopped. Caliam was laying on the floor, sleeping. Next to him a big present lay, opened, and something red and sticky, similar to the tomato soup his mother made for them to eat, was everywhere. Angel went to his brother and fell to his knees next to him and shook him.
"Caliam," he said. "Wake up! Mother is asleep, and I can't wake her up."
He continued to shake him, until a voice interrupted him.
"Angel?" his fathers voice said, strangely thick. "Come here."
Angel looked up and looked at his dad standing in the door. He was pale-faced and his hair still disheveled after his sleep.
"Dad," Angel said, confused. "Mom and Cal are sleeping, and they don't wake up when I try to wake them."
His dad swallowed.
"They'll wake up soon," he said comfortingly. "Come to daddy now."
Angel nodded and went over to his dad who lifted him into his arms and carried him up the stairs to his and Cal's room.
"Wait here," his dad said seriously. "Steph and Toni come soon as well. You won't go out from this room, no matter what. Do you understand?"
Angel nodded and his father disappeared from the room to come back with his big sister and brother. Then he went out again as sirens were heard coming towards the house.
Angel was abruptly pulled back into reality as a scream was heard and a red headed whirlwind flew into his arms.
"Uncle Angel!" a light girl voice called.
He broke out in a huge smile.
"Deidre!" he smiled and hugged her. "Hi!"
The tiny eight year old hugged him enthusiastically.
"Where did you leave Steph?" he wondered.
"Mom's in the kitchen," she explained proudly. "She said that she would make something yummy for us to eat tonight."
Angel rose and took her hand.
"Then I guess we're going to the kitchen to see what she is cooking for us," he laughed, "so we don't get food poisoned."
Deidre laughed at him.
"I told her the same thing," she told him, "but Mom just told me to get out of the kitchen. And I have to do as she says."
Angel smirked.
"Well," he said mischievously. "She can certainly not get me out of the kitchen if I don't want to. Especially as it's my kitchen."
Deidre laughed and started to skip next to him.
"Let's go to Mom!" she said.
-#-#-#-
Giles admitted to himself he didn't like having to do what he did, he really liked Angel Marciano, but experience had taught him that it was better to do this now than to be betrayed later. Therefore he called a contact of his and asked him to get Angelus Marciano checked out. It didn't take long before Jenny Calendar entered the library with a stack of papers in her hands.
"This came by fax a few minutes ago," she told him. "Where can I put them?"
Giles smiled at her.
"You can out them on the table," he told her. "I knew they were coming."
Jenny gave him a smile.
"OK," she agreed. "I hope you haven't forgotten our date tonight?"
"No," Giles answered and blushed. "The movies at nine. I haven't forgotten."
"Good," Jenny said. "I'm looking forward to it. See you tonight at the movies then, Rupert.
She exited the library with Giles staring after her with a love sick glint in his eyes.
"That woman...," he started, then shook his head to pick up the first paper.
An hour later, he relaxed and took off his glasses to look into the empty air in front of him. Angel had experienced much in his young life. More than anyone should have to. His identical twin had died when they were six years old. The other brother, Antonio, had almost killed him when he first changed under the full moon. The parents had had an on-off relationship his whole life. Married, divorced. Married, divorced. Married for the moment. He had been placed in a boarding school when he was eleven. Was harassed at school. It was strange he'd turned out as well as he had.
His whole family seemed to be unlucky. When he'd looked back in time, he'd found surprisingly many deaths. Even if it hadn't been easy to find anything at all. The mother, Maeve, had lived her whole life in a little village in Ireland until she met her future husband, Alessandro, who was born in Italy and was a gypsy who had dissociated himself from his clan.
Angel came from a quite strange family. Nine years ago, his sister had been raped and become pregnant with a girl, Deidre, who lived with her mother and Angel in the family home outside Sunnydale.
Angel. His record from his old schools showed he was a smart kid, even if he was rebellious. In his last school, he had been the leader of a gang which terrorized the whole school into order and peacefulness in a violent way. The few examples he had to set had been very educating, the victims had been brutally beaten, but never killed. And no one told anyone.
The teachers didn't know from the start, and when they did, they didn't care. After all, it just meant some peace and quiet. Until they came to understand the rules applied them too. Then they quickly expelled Angel and the game. And to make things even worse, the school was the one with most criminal activity in the United States.
And that was only the things he'd done. When he came to Angel's sick journals, things got really weird. Well, not that he was over six feet tall, was eighteen years old or had chocolate brown eyes, but another fact. He hadn't been sick since he was six years old, not even a cold, had never gotten so badly beaten he had to go to a hospital, not even after the incident with his werewolf brother. And after what his teachers said, there had been a few problems with accidents and strange rashes. But no explanation was given, besides he sometimes had low halts of iron in his blood. He had a just as strange record as Buffy.
-#-#-#-
Willow entered the library ten minutes to eight with Oz to wait for the person Giles wanted them to meet. Cordy, Xander and Giles were already there, but not Buffy. Not to surprising really. She never arrived ontime.
The red headed girl sat down by the computer to make some time go by. She was going to hack into FBI:s mainframe. It was two days since she'd done it last, so they should have updated their security by now.
Exactly eight o'clock she was in, and someone knocked at the library door. Willow turned off the computer and turned towards the door. At the same time Giles opened the door to greet the newcomer.
When she recognized the person, she inhaled sharply. It was Angelus Marciano, dressed in the black slacks, white, tight t-shirt and a black jacket with his hair spiked and a mischievous sparkle in his brown eyes.
"Welcome!" Giles said. "Come in, I'll introduce you to the others."
"Thank you," Angel said politely and entered the room. "Is Summers here?"
Giles shook his head.
"She's patrolling," he answered.
The watcher made a gesture towards an empty chair.
"Sit down," he offered.
Angelus smiled and sat down in the chair next to Oz. Giles turned to the group.
"Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Oz," Giles said seriously. "This is Angel."
He was greeted by nods and smiles from everyone, and acknowledged them with a nod.
"Angel," Giles said easily. "The red headed girl is Willow, the other girl is Cordelia. The boy with the red hair is Oz, and the other is Xander."
Angel smiled at them.
"Nice to meet you," he said in warm voice.
"So," Giles said. Now that everyone know each other, we'll get to the point. Angel know about the slayer and vampires."
The group got silent, and suddenly everyone was clearly interested.
"Will he betray us?" Willow asked neutrally.
Giles shook his head.
"No," he said. "Instead he'll be one of us. He'll be a very useful member of our group."
"So," Xander said with clear hostility. "What will he do? Fetch the books for us?"
Angel looked at him.
"I've been trained in martial arts since I was a little boy," he said blandly. "My family has had too many accidents trough the years. And they're to many to be coincidences. Everyone in my family is trained in self-defense, with weapons and without. Yet too many 'accidents' happens. My father is in exile, my twin was murdered, only six years old. My sister was raped and became pregnant, my brother is a werewolf. And all of us have been attacked several times. It's kinda clear someone is out after us. So we have to know how to defend ourselves. To kill."
Horrid expressions were on the faces of the gang.
"I-I didn't know," Xander said weakly.
Angel shook his head sadly.
"I don't care," he said. "What's done is done and never come back."
Willow felt a deep compassion for the young man before and his family. To go through that and still manage to live a somewhat normal life was admirable. But something in his words disturbed her. The two last words.
"Kill?" she exclaimed.
Angel's face suddenly went blank.
"Yes," he said tonelessly. "Kill. I've killed. Many times. Everyone in my family has killed. Death is a part of our daily life. And it's all for survival. We don't kill, we die."
Willow stared at him.
"How can you kill?" she whispered. "Take the life of a human being?"
He shrugged.
"It's hard," he said. "I try not to. My soul was killing me over those I'd killed the first times, but now, I'm just closing up. To kill doesn't scare me anymore. But it's still hard. Their faces hunt me at night, accusing me. But I'll live. I always do."
He straightened up, the movement taking their chocked silence away. But she could still feel the chock from hearing that he'd killed humans. Even if it was to stay alive. She didn't know how to take that. And the most horrid thing, was that being a slayerette, she would probably come in such a position that she had to kill someone in time. But her mind turned away from the possibility. Even if she deep down knew there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"I have to go," Angel said suddenly. "I don't want to be here when Summers come here."
A cold voice answered the comment from above.
"To late," Buffy said coolly. "I'm already here."
A shadow stepped out from the shadows by the stacks and transformed into the beautiful blond slayer.
"So," she said. "The three 'why's. Why is there a meeting, why didn't you tell me, and why is Marciano here?"
Buffy gave him a disgusted look that somehow managed to sneak a peak at his nicely advertised physique.
"He's one in the team now," Cordy said, studying her nails. "He'll patrol with you now, I guess."
"What?" Buffy exclaimed. "I won't work with him!"
Angelus just grimaced.
Willow smiled at the silly performance. It was obvious they didn't like each other, but it was also very clear they really liked each other. Buffy and Angel was the most unlikely couple she knew, yet she had a feeling it would be the two of them someday.
"Oh yes," Giles said grimly. "Your mother is already suspecting that something is going on, and if you're two patrolling, it will cut down on the time. Look at it as a little extra sleep."
Buffy pouted.
"OK," she said. "But don't think I'll like it."
Willow frowned.
"Why are you here anyway?" she asked. "I thought you were patrolling."
She nodded.
"Yes," she said. "But I finally managed to find Spike and Dru's lair."
"How did you manage that?" Xander wondered. "We've been searching for weeks, and have found nothing!"
Buffy laughed coldly.
"I took a little more direct approach," she said. "The vamp I questioned thought it sounded better to talk and get staked than taking a bath in holy water and then have a free hour of sunbathing."
"You're sure he told you the truth?" Xander asked. "Vampires don't speak the truth to often, or so I've noticed."
Buffy gave him a murderous look.
"Believe it or not," she said sarcastically, "but I did check it out. They are in the warehouse by the beach."
"How many are they?" Angel asked nervously.
She ignored him.
"There's about a hundred vamps in there," she said, "plus Spikey and Dru. Our best chance to get 'em is under the day when they're trapped. If we block the sewers, we've got them."
The seven in the library looked at each other and smiled.
"Tomorrow it is," Giles said seriously. "We meet at Buffy's when her mother has left the house. Me and Jenny will make sure you aren't missed in school."
"OK," the gang said as one.
-#-#-#-
Buffy sat up, suddenly awake. She glanced at the clock beside the bed. Seven. Time to rise. The slayer rose to take a quick shower and dress in a pair of black leather pants and a skintight black shirt to put her hair up in a pony tail.
When she heard the door close behind her mother, she started to pick out all weapons she had hidden. Stakes, crosses, knives, an ax, holy water, two swords and a crossbow to carry them to the living room and put them down on the table. As Willow, Xander, Cordy and Oz arrived, she was just looking through the kitchen for garlic.
"Hi!" Willow said. "What are you looking for?"
Buffy smiled.
"Garlic," she told them. "But mom seems to have hidden it well..."
"Don't bother!" Xander smiled and held up a bag for her to see. "I have it covered, even if the lady in the shop wondered why we were making garlic pie in school."
Buffy rose and closed the cabinet door to enter the living room.
"Did you see Giles or Marciano on the way?" she asked. "We have to get going soon."
Cordy nodded.
"Giles is on his way," she said, "and someone looking suspiciously much like Angel was leaving the cutest little girl I've ever seen at kindergarten. They should be here within twenty minutes."
Buffy frowned. Kindergarten? Marciano didn't exactly seem like the type who left their younger siblings at kindergarten. But it wasn't like it could be his own kid.
Someone knocked at the door, and she went to open. And outside Marciano waited, dressed in leather and a T-shirt. In his hand he held a long thin box and in the other some keys.
"Come in," she said shortly.
He entered her home and put the box down on the table. Then he turned towards Buffy.
"Giles is coming," he said neutrally. "He asked me to tell you to arm yourselves and get ready. We will leave immediately when he arrives."
Buffy nodded.
"OK," she said coldly. "The weapons are on the table. Take what you want."
Angel shrugged. Then he gestured towards the table.
"Giles asked me to ask you to arm yourself with the thing in the box," he said. "It is supposed to have belonged to one of your late slaying sisters who stole it from some demon."
He turned his back to her, but she noted he was very tense. Irritated over even noticing, she shook it off as nervousity over the coming battle.
Buffy went over to the box, and with a few simple moves she opened it. Inside, something rested in old, blue velvet, and she carefully picked it up and put it down on another table. She put the velvet away, and gasped as she saw what it had hidden.
It was a long, thin, double-edged sword, forged in excellent steal, decorated with blue crystals and gold. As she took it into her hand, she couldn't help but noticed how well it fitted in her hand. She let it cut trough the air, and it sang as it moved with grace before her. It seemed to be very well-balanced, and as she tested it in more difficult patterns, it followed her easily.
"What a sword!" she mumbled.
"Yes," Giles agreed from behind her. "It is."
Giles had been taken completely by surprise as Angel had brought the sword to him. He had thought the sword had been lost for centuries. But then, suddenly, it appeared with Angelus Marciano.
Angel had explained that it had been one of the few things his father had received from his old tribe. And now he wanted to give it to Buffy. Apparently, his mother had told him the sword belonged to the chosen one, the only one who could wield it. Which naturally got him thinking about Buffy.
But, as Angel also pointed out, it was very possible that Buffy never would accept something from him. So they had agreed to say it was from Giles. And now, when he saw it in Buffy's hands, he had to say it belonged with her. He'd done the right thing.
Buffy turned around with the sword in her hand.
"Giles!" she exclaimed with shining eyes. "Where did you get this? It's great! Thank you so much!"
Giles smiled at her, but his eyes didn't rest at her. They were glued to Angel. He was standing behind Buffy, grinning. But his grin never reached his eyes. They were cold and dark of anger, and to a little part also pain.
The watcher felt uneasy. With all that fury inside, Angel was lethal. If it was let loose in the wrong way, he could turn into a monster. He could almost see his own death in the eyes of the young man.
He swallowed.
"Shall we get going?" he asked.
-#-#-#-
They split up as they arrived to the warehouse. Willow and Cordelia were placed in the sewers to block an eventual escape there. Xander and Oz took the back door, Giles and Angel the front door. Buffy would take the place from the ceiling after opening holes for the daylight. Then she would attack Spike and Drusilla as their vamps were busy somewhere else. The plan was simple and lethal. It couldn't go wrong. Quickly, they took their places.
Angel stood as a statue in the shadows with Giles hiding by his feet and counted silently in his head. Soon. 5...4...3...2...1...
"Now!" he said to Giles, and they ran to the doors, quickly opened them and eliminated the guards.
That gave them about two seconds to get oriented. The warehouse was pretty large, and very dark. Vampires covered every inch of the building, and Spike and Drusilla had their own little free zone in the middle. He didn't get to see more before the vamps attacked. Angel started to swing his sword with grace and lethal skill as Giles started to take out his opponents with his crossbow.
-#-#-#-
Xander and Oz waited for the sounds of battle in the dark building. Oz nervously fingered the ax in his hand, while Xander tried to get the stakes and bottles with holy water he wore to lie somewhat comfortable. Suddenly, the distinct noise of steel meeting steel was heard. The two young men tensed, then sprung up to take their places in the battle.
-#-#-#-
Buffy was waiting on the roof, looking down at the place below through a small hole in the roof. So far, everything was calm. Marciano and Giles hadn't attacked yet. She silently noted where Spike and Dru were, then the room below exploded into a blur of motion. Giles and Marciano stormed into the place trough the main entrance, closely followed by Xander and Oz trough the back door.
She noted that the vamps seemed to be taken completely by surprise. It took seconds before they even formed some kind of defense, and then, quite a few of them had already died. Buffy let herself get a second glance at the battle, then started to crash the roof windows.
-#-#-#-
Spike kissed Dru passionately. It was always nice to have some sex before sleeping for the day, especially as they had shared a hot-blooded meal.
He was so engaged in his own pleasure, that it took fully five seconds before he noted the hostiles. Spike felt his face morph as he angrily looked out over the local. It was the sidekicks of the damned slayer, together with her damned new boyfriend.
"Attack!" he ordered his followers, as if they had the brains of a dog, which they probably had, but who cared?
Then he let a cruel smile play over his lips.
"Kill them," he said with a grin. "But leave the guy in leather to me. I want to take care of him personally."
Drusilla smiled at him from next to him.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked with a pale smile.
Spike shrugged.
"Don't know," he said. "You're the psychic."
He glanced at the dark haired young man battling the vampires and grinned.
"But I think so," he added.
-#-#-#-
Buffy destroyed the last window and watched with satisfaction as three vampires were touched by the sun and screaming turned into smoking ashes. Then she turned her attention towards her friends.
She immediately spotted Oz and Xander, fighting back to back, easily killing the vamps attacking them, and soon also Giles, who guarded the main entrance and had killed quite a few vamps, judging by all the ashes spread around him.
But it took her some time to find Marciano. He was surrounded by the majority of the vamps and fought desperately with a lethal skill. He had dusted a large number of vamps, but she could see he was in danger as the vamps had recognized him as the main danger.
Immediately, instinct took over, and the only thing she could think of was protecting Angel. Without even noticing her little slip up in her thoughts, she easily flipped to the ground, taking her place beside him, sword drawn.
"Need some help?" she smiled.
Angel gave her a grin.
"Why not?" he said nonchalantly.
They placed themselves next to each other to start move with fast, synchronized motions to drive the vamps back.
-#-#-#-
Drusilla looked worried. This wasn't as she had imagined it at all! The Slayer had reunited with her friends, and now she was fighting gracefully next to Angelus. Together, they were a deadly team, fast and ruthless, and their opponents disappeared like butter in the sun.
"Spikey," Dru said playfully. "I think it's time to do that sightseeing tour to the masters old lair you promised me..."
Spike turned to her with a tense smile.
"Sure, why not?" he said with a strange grin.
He quickly ordered a few of his minions to follow them, and then dived down into the sewers with Drusilla, just to be drenched in holy water coming from the two girls in the slayer's team.
"Damn," he swore as they had managed to slip away to the warehouse again.
He looked around for an escape path, and spotted Buffy a few feet away, free from vamps, looking out over the few remaining vamps. With an evil grin, he grabbed her and put a knife at her throat. A little old-fashioned maybe, but effective.
"Stop!" he called. "If you don't want little Buffy to die, of course."
Everyone stopped fighting, and the undead creatures quickly made their way towards Spike.
"What do you want?" Angel asked hoarsely and looked worriedly at the slayer.
'Unwilling protegee', 'not around', huh, don't think so. Spike almost laughed out loud at the absurd thought. It was easy to see that Angelus and Buffy were friends, and more than that.
Spike looked at him, still in his game face.
"Take your friends from the sewers," he said grimly. "Then I want free passage out for me and Dru."
Giles quickly went over to the entrance, and said something. Soon the two girls came climbing up and joined the others. Spike carefully moved towards it, without letting Buffy go.
"Let her go now," Angel said coldly as he reached the entrance. "We won't follow you."
Spike shrugged, and threw the Slayer onto the floor, then quickly disappeared to safety underground.
-#-#-#-
To see Buffy being held hostage made Angel petrified. His heart stopped beating, and he was filled by an instant fear of her disappearing from his life. Without even understanding it, he realized something in his heart. The young girl who irritated him so much, wasn't someone he hated. It was quite the opposite.
As if from another planet, he heard himself buying her life, without letting her frightened green eyes go with his own. And when Spike pushed her from him as if she were some piece of junk, he was at her side in an instant to take her into his arms.
-#-#-#-
Buffy held her breath as Spike took the knife from her throat and in the next instant, she flew trough the air as a glove and fell to the floor. Involuntary, she started to sob, and as a pair of warm, tender arms lifted her, she didn't resist. They made her feel safe.
Soft, calming words, whispered in a melodic, beautiful language made her realize it was Angel, and she desperately clung to his body, as his safe arms held her close to him.
"Angel," she said finally, and looked into his chocolate eyes.
A faint smile was born on his lips as he gently pushed her golden hair from her face.
"Buffy," he said softly.
-#-#-#-
Expressionless, Oz watched as Angel took Buffy into his arms, but inside, he was happy for them. Those to belonged to each other. They held each other desperately, while tears ran down Buffy's cheeks. Soothing words sprung from Angel's lips, and he didn't need to understand them to know what they meant.
As they finally parted, he knew that they to some part accepted their feelings. And as if she wanted to seal that decision, Buffy spoke Angel's name for the second time in her life.
Then their lips met in their first kiss.