The Night Remembers - Part 17
By Jill


"Uh ... hi." Dawn looked mildly surprised and she rubbed her tired eyes when
she saw the two visitors in front of the door. It wasn't even nine o'clock
and she knew that Cordelia wasn't the early type. "What's the matter?" she
asked and clamped her hand over her mouth when she had to yawn.

"Can we come in, it's important," the brunette said simply and then without
waiting for an invitation brushed past the slayer's sister.

Willow gave the girl and apologetic glance, and then smiled, "Sorry for
disturbing you so early. I know it's Saturday and all, but this is really
important."

"Sure," Dawn smiled back. "It's no problem. But Buffy's still in bed," she
said, when she followed Cordelia into the living room, Willow on her heels.
"She had a busy night."

"I know, I know. Eleven vampires, I've already heard it," Cordelia stifled a
yawn.

"Actually, it was 13 in the end," a voice came from the stairs and only
seconds later the slayer walked into the living room, blinking against the
bright sunlight. There were two more when Dawn and I went home after
reporting everything with Giles." She tilted her head and eyed the brunette
closely, "You don't look too good, Cordelia."

The former cheerleader groaned, "No, I don't feel good either. Might be lack
of sleep, or the fact that a certain vampire brushed into the mansion right
before dawn."

"Angel?" all weariness was instantly forgotten, Buffy's eyes were shining,
"Angel's back already? I thought he was coming back tonight."

"She's got all the symptoms alright," Cordelia exchanged a glance with
Willow. "And to answer your question. He got everything done, so he decided to
come back earlier, seems he can't stay away for long. And I think he doesn't
trust Spike."

"Shut up," came a loud voice from the basement. "He'd better appreciate my
sacrifice for her."

"Still cranky as I see," the brunette chuckled and the other grinned. "Poor
vampy. Got your ass kicked."

"Sod off," he barked. "And lower your voices. A vampire needs to sleep."

Dawn giggled, "His ego got a big crack. Its all that macho-stuff. I'm going
to make coffee," she announced and disappeared towards the kitchen.

"You know," Cordelia said, looking thoughtfully into the direction the girl
had just disappeared, "I would be careful with Spike around her. After all
this family has a tradition with vampires. And this one hasn't even got a
soul."

Buffy's face wore a shocked expression for a moment, before she shook her
head, "No way. Dawn likes Spike, but not that way. Besides, she's just 14
years old."

"And what did you dream of at that age?" the brunette asked, then waved her
hand, "No, don't bother. I don't want to know, even if you could actually
remember." There was a smile on your face and the tone of her voice said
that it was only friendly teasing.

The slayer smiled. She looked at Willow, then back at Cordelia. "Now. Why
are you here?"

They looked instantly uncomfortable, exchanging glances, shifting on their
feet, studying the carpet, then Cordelia took a deep breath, "Angel made us
swear not to tell you," she began. "And we... both... had all intentions to
keep that promise, but now the situation is changed and we just feel it
isn't his personal problem anymore. I, that is, we, Willow, Wesley, Gunn and
I-"

"And Tara," Willow reminded her.

"And Tara," Cordelia agreed, "We all think you need to know about it."

Buffy pointed at the sofa and the chairs and as soon as the women had sat
down, she asked, "To know what?"

"It's... uh... about Angel," Willow began hesitantly, hating the fact that
she was betraying the vampire's trust. But Cordelia was right, this wasn't
just about Angel, it was about the world and anyways, Buffy had a right to
know all about that particular subject.

"Yes, you..." the blond stopped, then alarm entered her eyes, "He isn't ill,
is he?"

"No," the witch reached out and touched her friend's arm. "He's fine." She
saw Buffy relax and smiled. "Before we tell you this, I want you to know
that Angel loves you. He really does and that the reasons why he choose not
to tell you about it, have nothing to do with his feelings for you. Well, in
a way it does, but not the way you might think. I mean-"

"Willow," the blond stopped her best friend's babbling. "Just tell me."

"Uh... yes. Maybe I'm going to start. You remember when you asked me to look
into his curse. Right. So I did. I, Tara and Anya. We thought a former
vengeance demon couldn't hurt and it showed that it was the right decision.
Anya speaks ancient Romani."

"Romani?" Buffy's eyes went wide. "Like the gypsies who cursed Angel?"

"Exactly," the witch smiled again. "I gave her a printout of the original
curse, the one that was used on Angel hundred years ago and then the English
translation Jenny had made. You have to know, that I'm really blaming myself
for never reading the English version properly. After Angel was re-cursed,
and later when he..." she stopped herself the last possible minute from
saying, 'went to hell', and said instead, "left you, there wasn't any
particular reason to do it."

"Why... should you blame yourself?" the slayer asked, then looked up when
Dawn returned with mugs filled with steaming coffee and cocoa for herself.

The girl looked around, "You mind me staying here?"

"No," Willow shook her head and Dawn sat down beside her sister. "Anyways.
Anya did. And she told us there was no happiness clause in the translated
version." She stopped and looked at Buffy, waiting for her reaction.

It needed a moment for the words to sink in, and then the slayer gasped.
"But that..."

"That's what I thought too," the witch nodded approvingly. "You can't
imagine what I felt after finding that out. There was joy, but at the same
time, I felt miserable for not realizing it earlier and saving you two so
much pain. But I found out I was wrong. Tara and I went to tell Angel the
next day. We were really excited only to find out that it wasn't true."

"But how..." Buffy's eyes darted from Willow to Cordelia.

"He reverted into Angelus in L.A.," the brunette replied. "An actress
drugged him. A drug inducing bliss... and check, there he was again. The
annoying demon, speaking nothing but the truth, insulting everyone and..."
she took a deep breath and shook her head, "sorry, I got carried away, but I
really can't stand that guy."

"I feel your pain," came the British accented voice from downstairs.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else," Willow suggested. "I don't know if
Spike..."

She broke off when she saw Cordelia waving her hand, "It doesn't matter.
He's going to hear about it sooner or later. Where was I? Oh yes. So we knew
that there was still the clause."

"Yes," the redhead continued. "I was devastated that I'd been so wrong, but
then we realized what had happened. At least I think we know. While I was
re-cursing him, some gypsy-spirit must have used me for channeling. Oz -
that was my boyfriend - said that I started out in English, then my voice
and the language changed. So Tara and I figured we just needed some sort of
protection spell to prevent it from happening again."

"Happening again?" Buffy frowned, then it hit her, and her eyes widened,
"You mean you just curse him again. Willow that's," she faltered and her
face fell. "Why do I have the feeling that's just a part of the story?"

"Because you aren't as dumb as I thought," Cordelia said with a smile.
"There's more than one thing. First, I think Angel is afraid. Of the whole
thing. He doesn't like curses in general and talking about them, especially
when it comes to himself, makes him... jumpy. He thinks that it might not
work to re-curse him and that he'd end up as Angelus."

"Yeah," Willow confirmed, remembering the day when she'd told the vampire
about her discovery. "He refused to even talk about it at first. I said we'd
just re-curse him with the old thing, if the new version doesn't work, but
he wouldn't listen."

"He's stubborn as a mule," Buffy muttered, but the others had heard her and
giggled.

"You can say that," the brunette agreed. "But there is another thing," she
quickly glanced at Dawn, not quite sure how to bring up the subject.
"There's still the... uh... procedure to remove the current curse. To lift
his soul so to say. The... uh... moment of true happiness." Seeing the
expression in Buffy's eyes she held up a hand, "A drug won't do it. It's not
true happiness, just synthetic. It'll wear off. The soul's not lifted, the
demon just gets the upper hand for a while."

The slayer nodded slowly. "I see," then more understandingly, "I see," she
exclaimed. "You mean we both would have to... I mean," she stopped looking
at Dawn much the same way Cordelia had just before.

It had her sister rolling her eyes, "You've got to be kidding," she said. "I
got sex education in school. As gross as it might be to actually picture...
but that doesn't mean I don't know what happens."

Buffy held her sister's gaze for a moment, then sighed loudly. "So much
about sparing her the gory details. Okay, so we both, I mean Angel and I
would need to..."

"Uh... yes," Willow confirmed. "To remove the curse. From what you told me
it doesn't happen immediately. So there would be enough time to chain him
down and hold him there to curse him again. I would do it, as I know how to,
and Tara would create a protective field around me, so that whatever sprits
want to disturb won't have a chance. Or at least that's what we hope will
happen. Theory and actually doing things aren't always the same," she said
in a matter of apologizing in advance.

"And... and he refused?" Buffy asked.

"Yes. Quite firmly," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "You have no idea - or maybe
you have?" she frowned. "I'm not quite sure what you remember. But anyways.
He's so stubborn, so thickheaded. You want to take something very hard and
hit him on that protruding forehead of his."

"It's a nice forehead," the slayer protested instantly, making her sister
giggle again.

"Huh?" the brunette looked as if the slayer had lost her mind. "Whatever. He
thinks he can't ask you to do that, with you not having your complete
memories."

Now it was the blonde's turn to roll her eyes, "Oh, I've already heard that.
You're not fit to decide if you don't know what you're deciding," she
imitated his voice.

"Yeah," Cordelia chuckled. "That's what I mean. Up to a certain extent I
can understand his doubts. But that's not the point."

"There's more?" Dawn put her cocoa down.

"Unfortunately yes. As I said Angel came back, this morning and he had news
regarding this 'gate'-stuff. He'll tell you tonight and he can do this so
much better than I, so I'm saving you from it for now, but one thing I
understood loud and clear and it's the reason we came." She turned to look
at Willow and the redhead nodded.

"You remember when we were talking about this law-firm in L.A., Wolfram &
Hart?" The blond nodded and Cordelia went on, "It seems they've combined
forces with some ancient vampire, they gave him the prophecy and in return
he promised them something they want desperately," she took another deep
breath. "He promised to remove Angel's soul. They know about the sort of
curse that had been used to install it in the first place."

"But then he needs to get the new curse done," Buffy exclaimed instantly.
"Doesn't he see that?" She looked incredulously at the former cheerleader,
"He still refuses it?"

"Yep," Cordelia nodded, "I think he even got to the point where he sees the
advantage of it, where he'd risk it, but he doesn't want to get you mixed up
in this."

"Oh that... that stupid idiot," the slayer angrily shook her head. "I told
him I loved him. He said he loved me-"

"Really?" Dawn asked not hiding her excitement.

Buffy's voice softened, "Really," she said quietly, and a smile crept over
her lips. "I'm going to talk to him," she got up and was already halfway up
the stairs when Cordelia's shout stopped her. She turned and looked at the
brunette who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Yes?"

"Don't be too hard on him. He really loves you, you know. And he's hard
enough on himself," she saw Buffy nod and smiled, "But of course you can hit
him once or twice, might help to get his mind back on the right track. Away
from that 'I-need-to-pay-for-sins-I-couldn't-help-happening'-routine."

The blond smiled back, "You know, Cordelia. I have no idea if I liked you
before the amnesia or not, but I really do like you now."

The former cheerleader stared at her retreating back, then shook her head
and laughed. Maybe she was wrong; maybe Buffy was exactly what Angel needed.

... to be continued


How do you like it now?? Still reading it? Cuz I really need to know you're
reading and hopefully enjoying the story. It's loooong ... and I need feedback!