Disclaimer: I own nothing
Spoiler: I don't think so
Dedication: To Ivy and Ashleigh who totally made my day!
Thanks guys!
Feedback: Do I really have to ask cuz I'll beg if
necessary
Author's Note: The Irish Angel whispers to Buffy is
supposed to translate to my heart, my soul, my love.
AUTHORS NOTE: WHILE FANFICTION.NET WAS DOWN THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED FROM
CHAPTER ONE TO CHAPTER SEVEN. YOU MIGHT WANT TO START AT THE BEGINNING.
C H O I C E S
By Angel's girl
Chapter Two – Revelations
The door sounded heavy as it clicked behind Buffy. She
had looked up at Angel a moment and he could see so much in her eyes. Most of
all he could see questions, questions that he knew he had better have answers
for.
"We need to talk." Was what she had said.
There was no hello. No pleasantries had been exchanged.
Something was weighing heavily on her mind and he knew that until that was out
of the way everything else could wait. Fortunately Angel was the understanding
type.
"Spike had the most interesting things to say about you."
Buffy started.
However Angel's understanding fell short where Spike was
concerned and suddenly Angel was tense, his mouth drawing down into a thin
tight line. The mention of his errant childe running his mouth to Buffy about
anything suddenly made him think about how long he had let the boy run wild.
"Did you want to know what he said or would you rather
scowl?"
"Huh?"
"Do you want to know what he said or would you rather
assume the worst and go pummel him now?"
"Sorry, please continue."
Buffy started to walk around the training room unsure of
how to say this. I mean the implications were great and she really still hadn't
grappled the whole concept yet and there was always the possibility that Angel
never meant it that way.
"Giles said that you were attacked and that you have
linked your attack to mine, as in you have been targeted as my…my hearts
warrior. We were discussing how that was possible when I'm with…"
Buffy stopped before she said Riley's name because she
wasn't sure how together they would be after this and she couldn't, wouldn't
hurt Angel. Buffy lifted her gaze to Angel a moment and he offered her a small
smile of thanks. She continued.
"Well anyway that's when Spike decided it was time to
have a sharing moment. Funny though now that I think about it he always seems
to have these revelations whenever the wrong ears are listening. Anyways his
explanation as to why you have been targeted and not …Riley is because we are
bonded. At least that is the first thing."
"Bonded?"
Buffy walked close to Angel and tilted her head slightly
allowing his mark to show clearly.
"When you did this he said you…you somehow bonded us. You
have marked me thus the permanent scar. The only one I have. Although I believe
we were bonded long before that. Your bite just strengthened it or proved its
existence but it was always there."
Angel reached out his fingers without thinking and
caressed his mark. The moment his cool fingers touched the rough skin of the
scar it was like a jolt of electricity coursed through both Buffy and Angel. A
tiny gasp slipped out of Buffy's mouth as she felt her womb contract releasing
a rush of moisture between her thighs.
"God Buffy." Angel breathed.
"Angel."
Buffy barely spoke above a whisper but Angel heard it
loud and clear. He was about to lower his mouth to hers and in fact his lips
were just a fraction of an inch away from hers if that. Buffy knew if she
licked her lips she would inadvertently lick Angel's as well. Her tongue snaked
out of her mouth the tiniest bit and she felt the coolness of his lips that
burned straight through to the heart of her.
"You know that wasn't all Spike said."
With the spell between them somewhat broken Angel pulled
back to look Buffy in the eye.
"What else did he say?"
Buffy pulled back away from Angel and walked to where the
punching bag hung from the ceiling. She placed a hand on either side of it and
then rested her forehead against it.
"Buffy?"
"He said something about the gift you gave me for my
seventeenth birthday."
Both were silent a moment as they remembered the events
of Buffy's seventeenth birthday. Buffy's birthday was a moment in time that's ecstasy rivaled and equaled
its agony. An event that almost seemed like it had happened a lifetime ago
instead of just five years. The emotions in the room were so intense they were
almost a living thing.
"What about it?"
"Well according to Spike he said there was something more
to the symbolism of the ring. He said…he said…"
Buffy's voice had filled with tears as she tried to
stumble over the words. She felt Angel's approach and turned just as he reached
her side.
"He said I was your…wife. However we all know how
truthful Spike is not to mention how much he doesn't like…well you know so I
uh…"
Angel slipped his fingers under Buffy's chin and had
pulled her gaze up to his.
"According to the custom and law of my people we are
married." He leaned in to her and whispered into her ear. "Mo craoi, mo anam,
mo gra."
The Gaelic just rolled off of Angel's tongue. It sounded
so beautiful and Buffy knew she could spend an eternity just listening to Angel
speak. However before Buffy could ask what he said the door to the training
room burst open.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU"RE DOING?"
Riley's voice was filled with pure jealous rage and it
caused Buffy jumped into Angel's embrace as the sound of Riley's shouting
reverberated in her ears. Buffy saw the look Riley was giving the two of them
and then they both realized why. Buffy stepped away from Angel and she could
feel her soul cry out in agony.
"Riley what…what are you doing? Why are you in here?"
"Why the hell was she in your arms? Why were you so close
to him?"
Buffy was flustered at having been caught so close to Angel.
Buffy brushed past Riley as she headed out the door but Riley caught hold of
her arm and yanked her back. This made Angel take a step forward and Buffy
could hear the growl of anger and malice coming from Angel.
"Where do you think you're going?" Riley seethed.
Buffy looked him square in the eye and then looked at the
arm he was holding.
"I'm going on patrol."
Riley wasn't letting go and he was cutting off Buffy's
circulation. Buffy again brought her gaze back up to Riley's.
"Riley you're hurting me."
"Well that's a switch."
Buffy wasn't sure what hurt more, Riley's grip on her arm
or the cold tone of his voice.
"Riley let go."
"This isn't over Buffy."
"It never is."
Riley let go of his grip on Buffy's arm and Buffy slipped
through the shop.
"Buffy where are you going?" Giles inquired.
"Patrol, I need to work off some tension."
"And you can't train because…"
"Because all of Sunnydale's resident vamp population
isn't going to come in and offer to be my sparring partner."
"No just one from LA does that." Riley muttered under his
breath but his comment was not lost on Buffy or Spike for that matter.
"I would prefer you not patrol alone and before anyone
suggests it, Angel is not a candidate because of the imminent threat to the
both of you. It would be entirely to easy for whatever this thing is to attack
when the two of you are out together."
"Fine." Buffy replied. She looked around the room and her
eyes settled on someone standing beside the training room. Buffy stalked over
to him.
Riley's eyes lost some of there angry glare as he watched
Buffy head in his direction but it returned when she reached past him and
grabbed Spike by the lapels and dragged him out of the Magic shop behind her.
"Why Spike?" Riley asked unable to keep the hurt out of
his voice.
Spike looked smug standing behind Buffy as she pondered
her answer.
"Because I care if you get killed in an attack. Him I
don't."
Buffy was relieved to see the slight smile shimmer across
Riley's face and then she turned to she the look of horror and hurt on Spike's.
She ignored Spike's protests as she grabbed him in one hand and her Slayer bag
of tricks in the other.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
For reasons he couldn't begin to fathom Spike followed
Buffy as she headed out on what he knew was her regular route pattern. Hell he
had stalked her often enough he could have walked it blindfolded.
Buffy was silent as she walked but her emotions radiated
off of her like too much perfume so Spike decided to toss a bone out to see if
she'd bite, metaphorically speaking.
"Bloody hell slayer that what you said back there hurt."
"Shut up Spike."
"I know I'm supposed to be a demon, evil and the whole
lot but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings."
"Shut up Spike."
"God the whole lot of ya treat me like yesterday's
garbage. I don't know why I even bother with you all."
Buffy stopped dead in her tracks and turned on Spike. It
appeared she'd bit.
"Why do you hang around Spike huh? Is your life so
pathetic that if you can't fucking fight me like the beast you really are then
you'll settle for causing the emotional train wreck like you pulled back
there."
"You know I was just telling the bloody truth and if
Riley got the short end of the deal well then it's his own bleeding fault. He should
know by now that he'll never take first place with you. No one ever will. It's
Angel, it will always be Angel just like for him it will always be you. He
proved that point when he put Mr. Pointy through Darla's back. He killed the
one person who should have meant more to him then you and he did it for you as
much as he did it for himself."
Buffy tried to absorb what Spike had said and at the same
time she tried to block it out. Spike hung his shoulders his stance defeated as
he lit a cigarette and took a long pull on it. God how he longed to feel the
smoke he had just forced into his dead lungs.
"Look Buffy, it was important that you know. This demon
or whatever is going to go after Angel. It means to destroy him because
destroying him gives him a better chance at destroying you…I'm sorry if…"
"Don't, don't you dare. Don't you ever apologize to me
you son of a bitch. "
Buffy was shaking and she couldn't stop the angry tears
that cascaded down her cheeks. Spike mentally kicked himself as he watched the
Slayer desperately try to contain her emotions but she was practically
vibrating. In another time another place Spike would have been reveling in
this. His demon would have been drinking this girls misery like he did blood
but all Spike wanted to do was find a way to make her pain go away.
"Don't you ever apologize to me. You aren't sorry. You're
never sorry. You enjoyed what you did to Riley, to me." To Angel.
Without warning Buffy attacked Spike. Her blows were fast
and furious and fueled by her anger, her hurt and her humiliation. Whatever she
had been trying to grapple with before Spike's revelation it had just
increased, ten-fold because of it.
Before Spike could do anything to stop her Buffy had
staked Spike to a tree in the cemetery. She had used five stakes to hold him in
place. In record time she had put one in each arm, one in each leg and one
squarely in the chest.
Spike watched Buffy raise her arm to impale his chest and
Buffy saw tears and pure unadulterated fear glint in his widened eyes.
"Buffy please, I don't I …"
Buffy paid him no mind as she sank the wood deep into his
dead flesh, shuddering at the sucking sound it made as it penetrated through to
the tree beneath him. Then Buffy turned and walked away from him. Buffy never
looked back although part of her would have loved to have seen the look on
Spikes face.
Spike watched the retreating back of the Slayer with
shock and then fear as he realized she wasn't coming back to undo him. Spike
struggled futilely against his trappings but it was no use. The stakes had been
imbedded deep so if someone didn't happen along and help him out soon he was
going to fry in the morning light.
Spike looked around for someone, anyone to help him but
then realization dawned on him. He was in a cemetery in Sunnydale during the
middle of the night in Hellmouth country. No one in their right mind would be
out before the sun came up.
"Slayer problems?"
Spike looked up to the owner of the voice hope gleaming
in his eyes until he realized whom it was.
"Sod off Harris." Like he said no one in their right
mind, which automatically excluded Xander from the party.
"All right then stay there all night see if I care." Xander
reached into his pocket and pulled something out, which he then placed on
Spike's face. "Here I think you may want these. Tomorrow is supposed to a
unusually sunny day." Xander said as he pushed the sunglasses up the bridge of
Spike's nose.
Xander began to walk away.
"Bloody hell…Harris wait. Get me down."
Xander put his hand to his ear. "I'm not hearing the
magic words."
Spike gritted his teeth together. "Please."
"Nope the magic words would be and pay attention now. I
will not harm Buffy because she was totally within her right to put me in my
place and I am eternally thankful that she didn't drive a stake through my
heart and be done with me.
"You've got to be kidding."
"No I'm not. Say it or I leave you here."
When Spike didn't say anything Xander again turned and
walked away.
"Bloody Hell! All right I won't go after Buffy and I
deserved it now will you please get me down."
Xander, having been satisfied, removed the stakes out of
Spike and helped him down off of the tree. Spike stumbled to his feet and
inspected his damage.
"You going to be okay?"
"I'll live."
"Good then I'm gone."
"Hey Harris, how exactly did you happen to by here?"
Spike asked as he rubbed his arms.
Xander held up his ringing cell phone.
"Hello? Yep. I did. No. I promised didn't I? Okay. You
too. Bye."
"Well?" Spike prodded.
"Well Buffy called me and told me where I could find you.
She also made me swear not to breathe a word of what she said or what I found
to anyone."
"She did?"
"Yeah she did. She is majorly wigged by everything that
is going on and you happened to be on the receiving end of a Slayer size temper
tantrum but she is sorry if that counts for anything."
Spike said nothing and stood against the tree as he
watched Xander get into his car and drive away.
"It counts for everything." Spike said when Xander was
gone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy was feeling confused and guilty and she didn't want
to face what was happening. Not the demon wanting to kill Angel and then her,
not the inevitable blow out she was going to have with Riley, not Spike when he
gets un-staked from the tree and not whatever it was that was happening between
her and Angel.
When she was alone with Angel in the training room the
pull that she felt drawing her to him was almost like she was possessed. It was
stronger than she had ever felt before and that scared her. Some big time major
bad mojo was going down and she felt absolutely powerless against it.
So it wasn't any big surprise when Buffy looked up and found
herself standing in front of the mansion. She stared at it as if it might give
her some understanding. She could feel Angel inside and he had opened the door
the minute she had stopped in front of it, he had felt her too. Without a word
she slipped inside and Angel closed the door behind them.
Neither one of them thought that this was the best of
ideas yet both of them seemed powerless to do anything. All Buffy could do was
sit and stare as Angel built a fire the way he had done countless nights before…
You don't know how my heart breaks every time you say my
name
You don't see all the tears that I cry in the dark
You don't hear how I pray that you're safe when we're
apart
Every time we kiss you don't know how you steal a piece
of my soul
You don't know how it feels to be the one who loves the
most
How hard it is not to beg you to stay then watch you go
Oh, you say it's all in my head but to me it seems so
real
No, you don't know how it feels
(You Don't by Sara Evans)
~*~*~*~*~*~
Somewhere in the dark of night outside of the mansion,
floating on the pre-dawn mist the sound of laughter could be heard except no
one was listening.
~*~*~*~*~*