Disclaimer and stuff in the first part.
The Night Remembers - Part 21
By Jill
"Riley?" Buffy whispered almost to herself, her head jerking around looking
at the man entering the apartment. He wasn't alone, there was another man
with him, she didn't recognize. She felt Angel's arm tighten around her
waist and put a hand over his that was resting on her belly, squeezing it
assuring.
He looked nice, Buffy decided. Not too bad. Nothing special, but still nice.
Friendly blue eyes, not a bad body, certainly, he looked like the one she
remembered this afternoon. She slightly tilted her head. No, no feelings
there, whatever had been between them, it was in the past. She hadn't
regained the full memory of her time with Riley, only bits and pieces, but
enough to understand what they shared and that what she had with Angel now
was so much more, she wouldn't exchange it for anything. Content with
herself, she leaned back at Angel's chest.
The commando shifted a bit uncomfortably on his feet, exchanged a short
glance with his Graham, then simply said, "Hi everyone," his eyes staying on
Giles for a moment. Angel and Buffy were sitting behind him occupying the
seat closest to the window, so he hadn't noticed them so far.
"Riley," the watcher stood, walked over to the younger man and reached out
his hand. The commando took it, "This is... er... unexpected," Giles said a
bit awkwardly. "What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to you. Our squad was moved back to California because there
were reports of increasing energy from the hellmouth," Riley replied, his
face serious. "We were told we'd be needed here."
"And you think without all your drugs and stuff you can actually help?"
Spike asked acidly without even looking at the human.
The commando ignored him. "I thought it was best to check the situation with
you, to coordinate our actions."
"That's a really good idea," Giles said. "Your informants are correct. We're
already researching the problem," he explained. "And you might see some new
faces around here. That is Gunn," he introduced the African American, "he
has a lot of experience with hunting vampires. This is Cordelia," he nodded
at the brunette, who was staring at the commando with barely hidden
curiosity.
The watcher turned slightly, "And this is a former colleague of mine, Wesley
Wyndon-Price, they're all usually working in L.A."
"L.A.?" Riley raised a brow, not liking the feeling that instantly entered
his gut.
"Yes," Giles confirmed, "And of course there's Angel," he pointed towards
the loveseat, "but I think you've met already."
The commando turned slowly but still wasn't prepared for the sight of his
ex-girlfriend sitting in the lap of the vampire. He had to summon all his
self-control not to lose his countenance. "Hello Angel," he managed to say,
and then his eyes rested on Buffy. "Hi," his voice softened.
"Riley," she nodded at him. When she saw Giles surprised gaze, she added,
"I... uh... remember him, or at least parts of it."
"I see," the watcher nodded at that, then turned back to the commando,
"We've had some problems around here the last few months," he explained to
the confused man, "As a result of a confrontation with Glory Buffy suffered
a memory loss and is slowly regaining bits and pieces of it back."
"Amnesia?" the commando asked.
"Sort of," Buffy replied, "It's much better now. I remember you. I mean the
fact that we were together. But only partly." Was she imagining it or did he
suddenly look relieved. Making a mental note not to forget that she asked,
"And you came to help? Your... squad?"
"Riley is part of an organization that hunts vampires," Willow explained.
"Yeah, and then they torture them, perform tests and implant chips," Spike
remarked.
"You were hunting vampires in Sunnydale?" Buffy's eyes went wide. "But I'm
in Sunnydale. Why would there be more hunters needed?"
"It was due to the hellmouth that the Initiative - that's the name of our
organization - was located here," Riley explained, smiling slightly. What
exactly did she remember, he wondered. And what not? "We met in college," he
added.
The slayer nodded, and then turned to look at Angel, "What do you think?
Another sweep through the graveyards, with all those vamps around here, we
could do a second round."
"That might be a good idea," Giles agreed, smiling at her, realizing that
she wanted to leave the high tension.
Slayer and vampire stood, and without even looking at Riley again, they left
the apartment. The tension seemed to dissolve the same moment. The commando
took a deep breath, "Are they... together?" he asked, although he already
knew the answer.
"Isn't it obvious?" Cordelia said with a grin. "It's gross, I know, but I
suppose we can't do anything but endure it."
"But... I thought..." Riley stuttered helplessly looking at Xander, who just
sighed. The commando knew he had absolutely no right to be angry, he had left
Buffy months ago and it wasn't his business with whom she was or not. But to see
her with Angel again ...
"I told him about the curse," Xander explained, seeing the questioning gazes of
the others.
"Oh," Willow smiled broadly, "We solved that little problem this afternoon.
And I would say it's a safe bet that they're an item again."
"I see," the commando said slowly, exchanging another glance with Graham who
hadn't said a word so far. "Alright, I'll inform our squad to keep away from
him. Angel, I mean. They already know about Spike, but we wouldn't want
Angel to be taken by accident."
"No we wouldn't want that," Gunn said from his spot near the door. "Actually
we wouldn't want that at all, and I guess the result would be a seriously
pissed off slayer. I'm off for patrol," he added, taking his coat. So that
was the Buffy's ex-boyfriend, he thought. No wonder he hadn't been able to
keep her. With a sigh he reached for the door, then turned his head, "You
with me, Spike?"
"Why not," the vampire replied, getting up. When he was passing Riley he
stopped, smiling, coolly putting a hand on the commando's shoulder in mocked
sympathy, "I know it's hard to watch, but you of all people should know how
addictive vampires can be." Patting Riley's shoulder again, he barely
suppressed a grin, and then followed Gunn into the night.
***
"You don't like Riley," Buffy said after she and Angel had walked in silence
for a while. They were just entering the Restfield cemetery and immediately
had spotted two new empty graves. "Look at that!" she pointed at them.
"Yeah," he replied, scanning their surroundings. "But they're gone," he told
her after a moment. "And to answer your first question. Do you actually
expect me to like your boyfriend?"
She had to giggle, his voice held pure jealousy and the sound of it sent a
jolt of arousal through her body. She was the slayer, strong, but that
didn't mean that she didn't like a bit of male possessiveness. Especially
from Angel. "Ex-boyfriend," she reminded him gently, taking his arm,
stopping him. "He's my ex-boyfriend, and I feel absolutely nothing for him."
His expression relaxed, "Riley and I," he said, pulling her to him, wrapping
his arms around her waist, "had a very unfortunate meeting over a year ago.
I came to Sunnydale, after... A problem occurred in L.A. and you came to
help. We didn't part in the best of terms. I was shouting at you," he
admitted a bit sheepishly, "and you weren't very nice either. After that I
came to Sunnydale to apologize for my behavior and ran straight into Riley
and his friends."
"Oh, was that the memory I had? You know with you and Riley glaring at each
other?" she asked.
"That was a bit later. I came to your dorms and then he showed up, holding
his stun gun in my face. The situation got a bit out of hand and you...
uh... had to go between us."
"Testosterone competition, I see," she giggled again and saw him smile.
"What's a stun gun?"
"Riley and his friends use them, they work with energy I think, they
immobilize vampires, to catch them and bring them to their labs. As Spike
said, to use them as some kind of lab rats," he took a deep breath and
pulled her closer. "I know there's no reason to be jealous, but I can't help
it."
"Oh, I don't mind," she replied, grinning. "Actually I think it's nice. Not
always of course, but from time to time. I might be the slayer, but I'm
female too and we like our boyfriends macho - in tiny doses."
"Macho, huh?" now he grinned as well.
"Uh-huh," she was rising on her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck and
about to kiss him, when he was suddenly pushed towards her, both of them
landing on the ground, Angel on top.
"Ugh," she made, while Angel was rolling away from her, turning towards
their attacker.
"Slayer," the vampire hisses.
"Oh - fine, now at least someone knows who I am," Buffy joked staring up
into the eyes of what seemed not the usual fledgling. "But you didn't tell
me your name. No manners in the vampire community these days," with a little
shake of her head she was on her feet, Angel already in fighting stance
beside her.
"And the pet-vampire is with you again," the demon mocked, already in full
game-face. "But I didn't come to fight you tonight," it laughed, "that'll
come soon enough. No, I'm here to give you a message from my master. He
wants me to tell you that he'll be looking forward to initiate a slayer very
soon."
Buffy heard Angel's deep growl beside her and then he launched himself
forward, but the vampire evaded him, stepping aside quickly. No, this wasn't
your average vampire. Angel's movements had been fast, unpredictable and yet
this vampire had been faster. The slayer began to feel slightly uneasy. And
it wasn't the master.
Angel recovered quickly and was on his feet in a flash, his demonic features
showing in the pale moonlight, and he was still growling deep in his throat.
The vampire laughed, an evil, hollow sound, seeing the shock on the slayer's
face, then with a fluent motion its leg connected with Buffy's chest,
sending the blond flying backwards against a tree.
"Buffy," Angel shouted, and attacked again, but he was no match for this
vampire. It was strong and old, older than Angel himself was, the ensouled
vampire could feel the power radiating from it, when he was flying through
the air, his body connecting painfully with the ground.
The vampire came after him, pinning him to the ground, holding him there,
"You didn't expect this, did you?," it asked. "I know who you are, Angelus."
Suddenly the vampire's body was pulled back, "Yeah, I know him too," a voice
came from above, "he's my bloody grand-sire," Spike shouted, he and Gunn
freeing Angel from the other vampire's grip. Because it was outnumbered, the
demon decided to let it go for the night.
"This isn't over yet," it shouted. "See you in two days!" The vampire
saluted, his evil laughter sounding through the night.
Angel took Spike's offered hand and the bleached blond asked, "What was this
all about? Who was the bugger?"
But his grand-sire didn't answer, his eyes immediately darting to Buffy, the
concern in his eyes fading when he saw Gunn helping the slayer on her feet.
He walked over to her, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she replied rubbing her back, "Who was that?"
"I have no idea," Angel looked at Gunn who shrugged, "But it said its master
was near. And this one was damned old already."
"Yeah," Spike confirmed with a nod, "I'd really not like to meet the master."
"This doesn't look good, man," Gunn rubbed his blank skull, "I think it's
time for reinforcement. I've called the guys, and then there's her ex with
his friends, but somehow I have the feeling it might not be enough."
Angel considered his friend's words for a moment, quickly glanced at Buffy,
then nodded, "You're right," he said, pulling the cell phone from his
pocket."
"What are you going to do?" Gunn asked.
"Calling Kate," the vampire replied, while dialing already. "I think it's
time to get another slayer over here."
.... to be continued