Disclaimer: For the love of god do I really have to …all right, all right. Geez…they aren't mine, they're Joss'. I gain nothing from this. (Sigh) There are you happy now?
Spoiler: See comment from previous
chapter and include Angel episode Epiphany.
Dedication: to Kelsey who said I should
write a sequel
Feedback: PLEASE. I need to appease my
muse!
By Angel's girl
Chapter 3
Buffy stood up and walked into the kitchen. She washed
her face in the sink and then took a deep breath before ascending the stairs to
her room. She put one hand flat against the door the other grasping the
doorknob as she eased the door open trying to brace herself for what she might
see.
She wasn't exactly sure what she would find when she went
into her room but she knew it wasn't the sight that played out before her now.
Angel was writhing on the bed in the throes of a
nightmare. It was reminiscent to the way he acted when he first returned from
hell. She watched helplessly as Angel continued to pull on the restraints that
bound him to her bed as the floodgates of emotion and memory washed through
her.
"Buffy?" He called out.
God how she desperately wanted to go to him and cradle
him. She wanted to reassure him that everything was going to be okay but was
it? Buffy stood rooted to her spot in the doorway unable to move or speak. She
couldn't be sure that this wasn't a mind game that Angelus wasn't trying to
goad her into trusting him.
"Buffy?" Angel cried again. He sounded so small and
frail. It was killing her.
Buffy walked over to the side of her bed, she reached
into her bedside table and grabbed a vile of holy water and a stake. She
carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and gingerly placed her hand on
Angel's chest.
"Angel?"
Buffy uncorked the bottle of holy water she held in her
other hand ready to use it at a moments notice and the stake lay at her feet.
"Angel wake up."
Angel stirred beside Buffy but he still wasn't opening
his eyes. Buffy needed to see his eyes. All the answers she would ever need rested
in Angel's eyes.
"Angel open your eyes for me baby."
Buffy was almost pleading with him now. She was fighting
hard to keep reign over her emotions until she knew what or rather whom she was
dealing with. Buffy began to shake Angel, first gently then more forcefully
until Angel finally began to come around.
With bated breath Buffy waited as Angel struggled to open
his eyes and focus in on his surroundings. He turned his head and looked at
Buffy however it was a good minute before Buffy could bring her gaze up to meet
his. After what seemed like an eternity Buffy's hazel eyes met squarely and
locked with Angel's chocolate brown. Buffy concentrated on those eyes and after
a couple of minutes Buffy gasped aloud and tears spilled down over her cheeks.
Buffy knew exactly who she was dealing with it was…it
was…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Riley was infuriated with what had happened last night
but he could almost forgive Buffy. I mean it wasn't entirely her fault although
she could have sent fang-boy on his way instead of rushing to his side once
again. This morning's turn of events was a different story entirely.
Riley was angry and he wanted to talk to Buffy about her
involvement with Angel. He felt that Angel was hampering their relationship and
if need be he was going to make her choose. If they had any real chance at all
he'd know it then. If she had picked Angel then he would have had no choice but
to walk away from this.
He certainly did not expect to find Angel at Buffy's
house and upstairs with her nonetheless. When he heard Angel's voice drift down
from presumably Buffy's room he had just about had an aneurysm. It took every
once of self-control in him not to go up those stairs and kill the son of a
bitch.
Riley had been pacing the streets of Sunnydale since he
left Buffy's. He needed to find some way to vent his frustration before his
head exploded off of his shoulders. However his options were limited as it was
daylight and so most of Sunnydale's creatures of the night were in hiding until
nightfall. Including Angel who was hiding out in Buffy's bedroom, trapped there
in that house with Buffy all day. A good twelve hours at least to work his
voodoo on his girlfriend in an attempt to drive a wedge between them. As if
there weren't one there already.
Of course this line of thinking only served to infuriate
him even further so he did the only thing he could do.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The gang was sitting around at the Majick Shop trying to
make heads or tales of what had happened the night before at the Bronze with
Angel. He certainly hadn't been acting like himself and he hadn't said one word
to any of them.
They were a little concerned about Buffy too because when
they left her alone with him Angel and he wasn't exactly playing nice. Willow
had wanted to call her this morning but Xander had convinced her that Buffy
could hold her own but had acquiesced when Willow said that if they didn't hear
from her by lunchtime that they would check up on her.
Giles however had overheard the group and he was now
demanding to be told what exactly had happened last night at the Bronze.
"You say that Angel came in looking as though he had been
in a battle and he came into the Bronze looking for Buffy."
"Yes he came in and searched her out although Buffy
picked up on him almost immediately and went to him. We helped them outside
and…"
"That's when he lashed out at you all?"
"Well more like Xander but Buffy put his focus on her."
"Yeah and then Captain commando jumped in there and well
once Buffy got him away from Angel we had to get Riley out of there. Buffy then
headed Angel towards her house."
"And now no one has spoken to Buffy since then?"
"No."
The gang all looked sheepishly at there hands. Giles just
looked at the bunch of them in disbelief a moment before grabbing his jacket
and heading towards the door.
Giles had only been gone a moment when Riley stormed in.
He walked right past the dumbfounded group and directly into the back to the
training room Giles had built for Buffy.
Willow walked into the room after Riley. She watched a
moment as he pounded on the punching bag. He was pouring so much into beating
that bag. The anger and emotion rolling off of Riley was almost palpable and
for a minute it overwhelmed Willow but she pushed that down and she walked up
behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
It was a simple gesture and Willow was lucky Riley didn't
turn around and take her head off. Instead Riley collapsed to his knees and
gave into the tears he had been fighting, giving into the utter feeling of loss
that had consumed him when in the deepest reaches of his heart he knew that he
was losing Buffy, not that he ever really had her to begin with.
"Riley what happened?"
Riley looked into Willow's eyes and after a minute he
told her how he had gone to Buffy's early this morning only to find Buffy
wasn't alone. Angel had been there. Angel had spent the night and Buffy had
tried to get him out before he could discover Angel's presence. However Angel
called out to Buffy…from upstairs. Of course this lead to a fight with Buffy
and Riley stalking out of there before he went upstairs and did something that
would make Riley feel great but would undoubtedly have the opposite effect on
Buffy than what he desired.
"So you're telling me that in Angel's state Buffy took him
to her house and he spent the night there?"
"Yea it certainly looks that way."
"Oh my god."
"What."
"Giles is on his way over to Buffy's right now."
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Giles walked up the walkway to the Summer's residence. It
certainly looked quiet enough but that didn't exactly mean that it was a good
thing. It could mean that everything was fine or it could mean that his Slayer
was dead.
He quietly walked up the front steps and placed his hand
on the doorknob. He turned it slowly as to not alert anyone to his presence
although he knew that he could walk in and frighten the life out of Buffy or
even Dawn but he was just going to have to take that chance.
It didn't calm his nerves one bit to find that Buffy's
front door was unlocked in fact it only served to increase his fear as he
reached into his coat pocket to retrieve the stake he had hidden there for
times just like this one. He pushed the front door open looked around before
stepping inside. It would do him no good to be blindsided and rendered unconscious,
as he would be of little assistance to Buffy that way.
When Giles was sure all was clear he stepped inside and
closed the door behind him. He made his way around the main floor of the
Summer's home before venturing down into the basement first. Once he was sure
that no one was able to sneak up on him from behind he made his way upstairs.
He checked Joyce's room and found it empty and
undisturbed. He then checked Dawn's room and found it to be in the same state
as Joyce's. He even checked the bathroom before continuing on to Buffy's room.
Giles stood outside the closed door to Buffy's bedroom
and listened. He could hear something but he couldn't for the life of him make
out what the sound was or who for that matter was making it. He tentatively
placed one hand on the doorknob and clutched his stake in the other.
'Lord give me strength to aide Buffy should she need it
and give Buffy restraint should I be wrong in my assumptions here but most of
all let her be understanding.'
Giles took a deep breath and then whipped Buffy's bedroom
door open.
"Oh good heavens."
"Giles."
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