Sunnydale Park
2 pm
"Doyle, I'm going back to the other Watcher's House, if you're going
to be here long. I want to get more info on this Adam thing."
Charlotte said.
"You've been to see Giles?" Cordelia asked.
"Yeah. It's part of that long story," Doyle answered. "Fine,
Charli--Charlotte, but don't do anything stupid like hunting on your
own," he added.
"Dooyyle," Charlotte whined. "I'm not a little girl."
"Charlie, I mean it," he warned.
"Fine," she huffed. "Maybe the other Slayer will show up, and we can
make our plans for getting rid of that thing," she said.
Cordelia watched in amazement as the new Slayer wandered off. "Okay,
you've got so much to explain, Mister. But why don't we start with
when you didn't die but you let m.... us believe that you did," she
said, crossing her arms in front of her to make her annoyance evident.
"Okay," Doyle sat down next to her and started his story. "When that
thing zapped me, I was sure that was it for me. But then, there I was,
in front of the Oracles. They basically offered me a deal. If I agreed
to go back to Ireland and find Charlie, they'd let me live. The only
catch was I _couldn't_ tell you or Angel that I was alive. I wanted to
Cordelia, I thought about it every day... The only thing that kept me
from doing that was that the Oracles promised I'd have the chance to
see you two again soon.
"As for why they wanted me back in Ireland...when Charlie was born, my
mum shipped her off to Ireland. I guess you've gathered that if she's
my human half-sister, her father was human. My father died when I was
six, and mum tried to make a normal life wafter that. She couldn't
though, not with a half-demon son. Charlie's dad left her not too
longer after she got pregnant, because he couldn't deal with me.
"When Charlie was a few months old, mum sent her to live with our
Aunt, in Dublin. She told me that Charlie deserved a normal life, and
how coud I argue with that. Mum was adamant that we not make any
attempt to contact Charlie. Then when mum died about five years ago,
I thought about finding Charlie again. I decided against it. She'd
never known me or Mum, and I figured it was better not to disrupt her
life.
"So, when I....left, the Oracles told me I was supposed to go find
Charlie, and basically watch out for her. I didn't understand, until
they explained that Charlie was going to be the next Slayer. Of
course, I then thought that meant Buffy...but they explained the 'two
slayer' thing. They told me that the other Slayer, Faith, would die,
and Charlie had been chosen. Not only was I supposed to take care of
her, but they wanted me to be her Watcher when she was informed of
her calling. Imagine that. Me, a Watcher!"
"I'm trying," Cordelia said, a dazed look on her face.
Doyle chuckled, and continued, "So, I went to Dublin, and I tracked
the family down. Charlie did not greet me with open arms. Aunt Lorena
had told Charlie all about us, but she hadn't been incredibly kind
about mum's decision to send her overseas. Charlie wasn't interested
in me, since I hadn't tried to find her earlier. Then, she was
understandably upset when I had to tell her that our mother was dead.
I understand now why the Oracles sent me away when they did. The last
few months haven't been easy. It took this long for the Watcher's
Council to want me as a Watcher, and for Charlie to trust me again.
Surprisingly, it didn't take much time or effort for her to accept
being a Slayer."
"How long _has_ Faith been dead?" Cordelia asked.
"Three weeks," Doyle answered. "And not too long after I was given the
go-ahead by the Watcher's Council to tell Charlie she was a Slayer, we
were told about Adam. Do you know about Adam?"
"Just the little I've gotten out of Anya and Giles," Cordelia
shrugged. "Big, ugly, almost impossible to kill.."
Doyle laughed at the description. "Yeah, I suppose that sums it up,"
he agreed. "They thought that Charlie might be able to help Buffy
kill the big, bad ugly. I must say I was surprised to learn that you
and....well, Angelus were back. I'm glad you're okay, though."
"Yeah, Angelus did his 'maim, torture, kill' thing....luckily no
killing in our direction, but one of my friends got a nice dose of
his torture. I take it that you've been filled in by Giles about all
the latest?"
"Yeah, I contacted him, about a week ago. We checked in with him about
an hour ago. I met Wesley, by the way. He was at Giles' apartment.
They filled me and Charlie in on the morning's fun...but I'm confused
about one thing," Doyle said.
"_Only_ one?" Cordelia said skeptically, "You're way ahead of me
Because I was still trying to make my brain catch up with what _we_
did this morning. And then you throw me this curveball...'Look, a new
Slayer! Oh, and there's Doyle, and he's alive. And guess what, he's a
Watcher!'" Cordelia looked at him a moment, a bewildered look on her
face. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was that the part where I was supposed to
say, 'Which thing was confusing, Doyle? I'll be glad to un-confuse
you'?" she asked.
Doyle smiled, and said, "I can only imagine how hard it is for you to
process all this. These are things that have occurred over several
months, and I've condensed them into minutes. Take all the time you
need."
He reached out hesitantly to take her hand, and was relieved when she
didn't pull away. Instead she took it, and smiled up him. It took
every bit of restraint he had not to pull her into his arms and kiss
her. He told himself this wasn't the right time. Hopefully they had
plenty of time for that later. "So does that mean I'm forgiven for
not telling you and Angel I wasn't dead?" he asked hopefully.
Cordelia laughed and said, "Maybe.... Oh! We've _gotta_ go find
Angel. I _know_ he'll be happy to see you!"
"Slow down there, Princess," Doyle said with a smile. "First, would
you please unconfuse me on that one point I mentioned earlier? Was
that Mohra demon's blood Giles mentioned you guys went to collect
before storming the mansion the same kind that made Angel human last
time?"
"Uh, yeah," Cordelia answered. "And, yes. It did it again."
"Cordy--"
"Don't lecture me, Doyle," Cordelia groaned. "I already got a
mini-lecture from Angel. And I'm not sorry. I didn't think that it
would bring his _life_ back, I was just going for bringing back his
soul. I couldn't let him stay Angelus, and I didn't want to kill him
without at least trying to bring Angel back. It worked, and none of
us died, so I consider our morning a relative success."
"Cordelia, I wasn't going to lecture you--" At Cordelia's raised
eyebrow, he added, "Okay, so maybe I was. I miss giving you a hard
time about things," he shrugged. "I don't doubt that you did it for
the right reasons. I figure that Angel has more than paid his dues
and deserves to be free. If he can let himself be."
"Oh, he will, all right. Because if the return of brood-boy was bad
when he turned back time the first time... I can only imagine the
brood-possibilities if he does it again. So he either accepts his new
chance at a normal life, or I'll stake him.
"Oh, you laugh, but you have no idea the amount of angst one vampire
with a soul can exude. And when that vampire with a soul is in love
with a human girl who happens to be the....well, a Slayer, watch out.
What you don't know is he got so much worse after you dyi...well, the
point is I can't take it anymore, it's either me or him.
"But, now that I've cleared that confusion up, come on. Angel will
have much less opportunity to consider a return to brood-boy if we
distract him by the fact that you're alive." Cordelia jumped up and
dragged Doyle toward the motel.
&&&&&&
Xander's House
2 pm
Xander and Anya were in his room. Anya was nagging him about eating,
and Xander had gotten to the point where he had blocked it out. He was
sitting looking at a magazine, but not really seeing anything, when he
heard his mom's voice. "Xander, it's your friend Willow!"
"Oops," Anya said. "I didn't hear the door, sorry."
"It's okay. I should've figured she'd find a way in eventually,"
Xander shrugged. He looked up as Willow descended the stairway.
"Xander, I know you're angry. But if you'll just give me a chance,"
Willow pleaded.
"Anger doesn't describe it properly," Xander replied. "Devastated,
that almost begins to cover it. Anya told me how much time you guys
spent trying to find the cure for dead-boy before you finally made it
over to the mansion. I'm touched that you thought saving me and
Wesley was so not immediately important. Disappointed is another good
one. Ange...He told me that Buffy knew he was back yesterday morning.
Was that true?"
Willow nodded mutely, looking down at the floor.
"I see. Yet, nobody bothered to tell me or Anya that the psycho was
loose. I find that sickening proof of what a non-person I am to you
two lately. And then there was the decision to keep me from staking
him. You have no idea how much it hurts to know that Buffy's and
Angel's happiness is more important to you than mine."
"Xander, that's not true," Willow protested. "I love you and Buffy. We
all used to be so close, and I just couldn't bear the possibility that
it's all over. By stopping you, I was trying to salvage what little
chance there was for those friendships. If you'd staked Angelus, Buffy
never would have forgiven you. I never dreamed that you'd think I was
betraying you," Willow said.
"I think that's part of the problem, Wills. You thought I'd go along
with the plan, like I always have. You figured I'd just shrug off all
the bad stuff that's happened and jump on the 'save Angel's soul
bandwagon'. But I can't. Not anymore. Not after what he did to me."
"I don't know what to say, Xander. Tell me what to say, or do, to make
this better," Willow said, looking at him sadly.
"I don't think there's anything you could possibly say or do to make
it better," Xander shrugged, looking at her blankly. "This isn't
getting us anywhere. Please leave."
Willow opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it. She let
out a dejected sigh, and walked back upstairs and out the door.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Motel 6
2 pm
Buffy and Angel had managed to move onto the bed but Angel broke the
mood unexpectedly. "Buffy we shouldn't do this right now--" as he
tried to extract himself from Buffy's embrace. At her pout, he gave
up, getting out of her arms. He pointed out, though, "Cordelia or
Wesley could walk in on us."
"So? Fine, fine," she muttered. She contented herself by curling up
on his lap. "Why only one room?"
"I wanted to go back to L.A., but Cordelia informed me that was out of
the question. The compromise was that we'd get one hotel room for the
day, while we decided what we would do next."
"You really would have left town, and not told me you were human?"
Buffy questioned, obviously hurt at the possibility. Angel sighed,
and kissed her on the forehead, "I just wanted some time to sort
things out. I hate that I've caused you and your friends so much
pain--don't bother arguing that it wasn't me. I remember it, whether
or not I was actually able to control my actions at the moment,"
Angel added.
"Okay, fine. But what do we do now?" Buffy asked.
"I...I don't know, Buffy. The last time this happened, I was forced to
make a choice. If I'd stayed human, I was told you would die. I
couldn't deal with that," Angel said.
Buffy could see the sadness in his eyes. "It's okay, I remember all
of that," Buffy replied. "You've never hurt me intentionally, Angel.
You gave up the chance to be human, because you thought that you
being human would cost me my life. What you don't get is that I
don't want a long life if it's a long life without you in it."
"I feel the same way about you," Angel replied. "I've missed you so
much, Buffy. I have Cordelia call Giles occasionally on the pretense
of a question only he could answer. Of course, she asks about you and
the others, and that's how I reassure myself that you are okay."
Buffy laughed. "We are pathetic, aren't we? So why can't we be
pathetic together?" she added with a smile.
Angel kissed her gently, and said, "I want to be with you, Buffy. I
just need some time to figure out how."
"Angel, if we're going to be together, that doesn't mean you have to
move back here. L.A. isn't that far away from Sunnydale. But it does
mean I need you to promise me something," Buffy said.
"What's that?"
"Don't obsess about everything that could go wrong if we stay
together. Don't go to the Oracles demanding to know what this means.
Just let it be. Let us be two at least semi-normal people, and we'll
take each day as it comes. Can you do that?" she asked.
Angel nodded. "Okay. I can promise that I won't go to the Oracles. As
for the rest, I'll try, okay? I can't help worrying about you, so
don't ask me that."
"I suppose I'll have to be happy with that for now. We'll work on the
rest later." Buffy said. "Right now, though, we've seriously got to
contemplate finding another place to spend some time together," she
added, as she kissed him passionately.
"Angel you'll--oh," Cordelia walked into the room then. "Sorry, but I
think I've got someone here you'll be happy to see."
&&&&&&&&&&&
End of 21
2 pm
"Doyle, I'm going back to the other Watcher's House, if you're going
to be here long. I want to get more info on this Adam thing."
Charlotte said.
"You've been to see Giles?" Cordelia asked.
"Yeah. It's part of that long story," Doyle answered. "Fine,
Charli--Charlotte, but don't do anything stupid like hunting on your
own," he added.
"Dooyyle," Charlotte whined. "I'm not a little girl."
"Charlie, I mean it," he warned.
"Fine," she huffed. "Maybe the other Slayer will show up, and we can
make our plans for getting rid of that thing," she said.
Cordelia watched in amazement as the new Slayer wandered off. "Okay,
you've got so much to explain, Mister. But why don't we start with
when you didn't die but you let m.... us believe that you did," she
said, crossing her arms in front of her to make her annoyance evident.
"Okay," Doyle sat down next to her and started his story. "When that
thing zapped me, I was sure that was it for me. But then, there I was,
in front of the Oracles. They basically offered me a deal. If I agreed
to go back to Ireland and find Charlie, they'd let me live. The only
catch was I _couldn't_ tell you or Angel that I was alive. I wanted to
Cordelia, I thought about it every day... The only thing that kept me
from doing that was that the Oracles promised I'd have the chance to
see you two again soon.
"As for why they wanted me back in Ireland...when Charlie was born, my
mum shipped her off to Ireland. I guess you've gathered that if she's
my human half-sister, her father was human. My father died when I was
six, and mum tried to make a normal life wafter that. She couldn't
though, not with a half-demon son. Charlie's dad left her not too
longer after she got pregnant, because he couldn't deal with me.
"When Charlie was a few months old, mum sent her to live with our
Aunt, in Dublin. She told me that Charlie deserved a normal life, and
how coud I argue with that. Mum was adamant that we not make any
attempt to contact Charlie. Then when mum died about five years ago,
I thought about finding Charlie again. I decided against it. She'd
never known me or Mum, and I figured it was better not to disrupt her
life.
"So, when I....left, the Oracles told me I was supposed to go find
Charlie, and basically watch out for her. I didn't understand, until
they explained that Charlie was going to be the next Slayer. Of
course, I then thought that meant Buffy...but they explained the 'two
slayer' thing. They told me that the other Slayer, Faith, would die,
and Charlie had been chosen. Not only was I supposed to take care of
her, but they wanted me to be her Watcher when she was informed of
her calling. Imagine that. Me, a Watcher!"
"I'm trying," Cordelia said, a dazed look on her face.
Doyle chuckled, and continued, "So, I went to Dublin, and I tracked
the family down. Charlie did not greet me with open arms. Aunt Lorena
had told Charlie all about us, but she hadn't been incredibly kind
about mum's decision to send her overseas. Charlie wasn't interested
in me, since I hadn't tried to find her earlier. Then, she was
understandably upset when I had to tell her that our mother was dead.
I understand now why the Oracles sent me away when they did. The last
few months haven't been easy. It took this long for the Watcher's
Council to want me as a Watcher, and for Charlie to trust me again.
Surprisingly, it didn't take much time or effort for her to accept
being a Slayer."
"How long _has_ Faith been dead?" Cordelia asked.
"Three weeks," Doyle answered. "And not too long after I was given the
go-ahead by the Watcher's Council to tell Charlie she was a Slayer, we
were told about Adam. Do you know about Adam?"
"Just the little I've gotten out of Anya and Giles," Cordelia
shrugged. "Big, ugly, almost impossible to kill.."
Doyle laughed at the description. "Yeah, I suppose that sums it up,"
he agreed. "They thought that Charlie might be able to help Buffy
kill the big, bad ugly. I must say I was surprised to learn that you
and....well, Angelus were back. I'm glad you're okay, though."
"Yeah, Angelus did his 'maim, torture, kill' thing....luckily no
killing in our direction, but one of my friends got a nice dose of
his torture. I take it that you've been filled in by Giles about all
the latest?"
"Yeah, I contacted him, about a week ago. We checked in with him about
an hour ago. I met Wesley, by the way. He was at Giles' apartment.
They filled me and Charlie in on the morning's fun...but I'm confused
about one thing," Doyle said.
"_Only_ one?" Cordelia said skeptically, "You're way ahead of me
Because I was still trying to make my brain catch up with what _we_
did this morning. And then you throw me this curveball...'Look, a new
Slayer! Oh, and there's Doyle, and he's alive. And guess what, he's a
Watcher!'" Cordelia looked at him a moment, a bewildered look on her
face. "Oh, I'm sorry. Was that the part where I was supposed to
say, 'Which thing was confusing, Doyle? I'll be glad to un-confuse
you'?" she asked.
Doyle smiled, and said, "I can only imagine how hard it is for you to
process all this. These are things that have occurred over several
months, and I've condensed them into minutes. Take all the time you
need."
He reached out hesitantly to take her hand, and was relieved when she
didn't pull away. Instead she took it, and smiled up him. It took
every bit of restraint he had not to pull her into his arms and kiss
her. He told himself this wasn't the right time. Hopefully they had
plenty of time for that later. "So does that mean I'm forgiven for
not telling you and Angel I wasn't dead?" he asked hopefully.
Cordelia laughed and said, "Maybe.... Oh! We've _gotta_ go find
Angel. I _know_ he'll be happy to see you!"
"Slow down there, Princess," Doyle said with a smile. "First, would
you please unconfuse me on that one point I mentioned earlier? Was
that Mohra demon's blood Giles mentioned you guys went to collect
before storming the mansion the same kind that made Angel human last
time?"
"Uh, yeah," Cordelia answered. "And, yes. It did it again."
"Cordy--"
"Don't lecture me, Doyle," Cordelia groaned. "I already got a
mini-lecture from Angel. And I'm not sorry. I didn't think that it
would bring his _life_ back, I was just going for bringing back his
soul. I couldn't let him stay Angelus, and I didn't want to kill him
without at least trying to bring Angel back. It worked, and none of
us died, so I consider our morning a relative success."
"Cordelia, I wasn't going to lecture you--" At Cordelia's raised
eyebrow, he added, "Okay, so maybe I was. I miss giving you a hard
time about things," he shrugged. "I don't doubt that you did it for
the right reasons. I figure that Angel has more than paid his dues
and deserves to be free. If he can let himself be."
"Oh, he will, all right. Because if the return of brood-boy was bad
when he turned back time the first time... I can only imagine the
brood-possibilities if he does it again. So he either accepts his new
chance at a normal life, or I'll stake him.
"Oh, you laugh, but you have no idea the amount of angst one vampire
with a soul can exude. And when that vampire with a soul is in love
with a human girl who happens to be the....well, a Slayer, watch out.
What you don't know is he got so much worse after you dyi...well, the
point is I can't take it anymore, it's either me or him.
"But, now that I've cleared that confusion up, come on. Angel will
have much less opportunity to consider a return to brood-boy if we
distract him by the fact that you're alive." Cordelia jumped up and
dragged Doyle toward the motel.
&&&&&&
Xander's House
2 pm
Xander and Anya were in his room. Anya was nagging him about eating,
and Xander had gotten to the point where he had blocked it out. He was
sitting looking at a magazine, but not really seeing anything, when he
heard his mom's voice. "Xander, it's your friend Willow!"
"Oops," Anya said. "I didn't hear the door, sorry."
"It's okay. I should've figured she'd find a way in eventually,"
Xander shrugged. He looked up as Willow descended the stairway.
"Xander, I know you're angry. But if you'll just give me a chance,"
Willow pleaded.
"Anger doesn't describe it properly," Xander replied. "Devastated,
that almost begins to cover it. Anya told me how much time you guys
spent trying to find the cure for dead-boy before you finally made it
over to the mansion. I'm touched that you thought saving me and
Wesley was so not immediately important. Disappointed is another good
one. Ange...He told me that Buffy knew he was back yesterday morning.
Was that true?"
Willow nodded mutely, looking down at the floor.
"I see. Yet, nobody bothered to tell me or Anya that the psycho was
loose. I find that sickening proof of what a non-person I am to you
two lately. And then there was the decision to keep me from staking
him. You have no idea how much it hurts to know that Buffy's and
Angel's happiness is more important to you than mine."
"Xander, that's not true," Willow protested. "I love you and Buffy. We
all used to be so close, and I just couldn't bear the possibility that
it's all over. By stopping you, I was trying to salvage what little
chance there was for those friendships. If you'd staked Angelus, Buffy
never would have forgiven you. I never dreamed that you'd think I was
betraying you," Willow said.
"I think that's part of the problem, Wills. You thought I'd go along
with the plan, like I always have. You figured I'd just shrug off all
the bad stuff that's happened and jump on the 'save Angel's soul
bandwagon'. But I can't. Not anymore. Not after what he did to me."
"I don't know what to say, Xander. Tell me what to say, or do, to make
this better," Willow said, looking at him sadly.
"I don't think there's anything you could possibly say or do to make
it better," Xander shrugged, looking at her blankly. "This isn't
getting us anywhere. Please leave."
Willow opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it. She let
out a dejected sigh, and walked back upstairs and out the door.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Motel 6
2 pm
Buffy and Angel had managed to move onto the bed but Angel broke the
mood unexpectedly. "Buffy we shouldn't do this right now--" as he
tried to extract himself from Buffy's embrace. At her pout, he gave
up, getting out of her arms. He pointed out, though, "Cordelia or
Wesley could walk in on us."
"So? Fine, fine," she muttered. She contented herself by curling up
on his lap. "Why only one room?"
"I wanted to go back to L.A., but Cordelia informed me that was out of
the question. The compromise was that we'd get one hotel room for the
day, while we decided what we would do next."
"You really would have left town, and not told me you were human?"
Buffy questioned, obviously hurt at the possibility. Angel sighed,
and kissed her on the forehead, "I just wanted some time to sort
things out. I hate that I've caused you and your friends so much
pain--don't bother arguing that it wasn't me. I remember it, whether
or not I was actually able to control my actions at the moment,"
Angel added.
"Okay, fine. But what do we do now?" Buffy asked.
"I...I don't know, Buffy. The last time this happened, I was forced to
make a choice. If I'd stayed human, I was told you would die. I
couldn't deal with that," Angel said.
Buffy could see the sadness in his eyes. "It's okay, I remember all
of that," Buffy replied. "You've never hurt me intentionally, Angel.
You gave up the chance to be human, because you thought that you
being human would cost me my life. What you don't get is that I
don't want a long life if it's a long life without you in it."
"I feel the same way about you," Angel replied. "I've missed you so
much, Buffy. I have Cordelia call Giles occasionally on the pretense
of a question only he could answer. Of course, she asks about you and
the others, and that's how I reassure myself that you are okay."
Buffy laughed. "We are pathetic, aren't we? So why can't we be
pathetic together?" she added with a smile.
Angel kissed her gently, and said, "I want to be with you, Buffy. I
just need some time to figure out how."
"Angel, if we're going to be together, that doesn't mean you have to
move back here. L.A. isn't that far away from Sunnydale. But it does
mean I need you to promise me something," Buffy said.
"What's that?"
"Don't obsess about everything that could go wrong if we stay
together. Don't go to the Oracles demanding to know what this means.
Just let it be. Let us be two at least semi-normal people, and we'll
take each day as it comes. Can you do that?" she asked.
Angel nodded. "Okay. I can promise that I won't go to the Oracles. As
for the rest, I'll try, okay? I can't help worrying about you, so
don't ask me that."
"I suppose I'll have to be happy with that for now. We'll work on the
rest later." Buffy said. "Right now, though, we've seriously got to
contemplate finding another place to spend some time together," she
added, as she kissed him passionately.
"Angel you'll--oh," Cordelia walked into the room then. "Sorry, but I
think I've got someone here you'll be happy to see."
&&&&&&&&&&&
End of 21