Chapter 8

Angel toweled the last bit of wet from his body. The dragon blood had really made him itchy. Probably had magical properties he didn't want to think about. He went into his and Oz's room and found his other set of clothing waiting. It was laid out neatly on the bed.
While in the old fashioned bathtub Angel had been thinking. How Buffy fit into his life after all the years had passed. And then the images that popped up. He had, had 2 already. The glimpses of a life so long past it was buried deep in his subconscious. He wondered why he didn't have them before. When he lived in Ireland. But then again he didn't know Buffy then. He decided as he pulled on his dark sweater and jeans that he would go get a book and research with Giles.
He headed down the hall and back down the stairs. He wandered the main floor until he found the library. Giles was still hard at work. "Hey Giles. How are you?" Angel sat down next to him. Giles looked at Angel for a minute.
"I'm fine Angel. If I could just figure this all out."
"I need your help" Angel paused having got Giles complete attention. "Since I've been here I've been having visions...of the past."
"Really?" Giles rubbed his glasses. "What do they entail?"
"Me and Buffy... in our past lives. Here."
"Extraordinary." Angel nodded. "And you want to research them?"
"You got it. I think they might help. My gut instinct tells me that the visions are explaining something. But I'd like to avoid what causes the visions."
"And that is?" Giles asked already opening a book.
"Touching Buffy."
"Oh I see. Yes that is a problem. Maybe you won't have to be in contact with Buffy. Can you describe these visions?" Giles picked up a pen, ready to listen.
"Well..."
Meanwhile...
"Have you gotten any results yet?" Buffy asked quietly slipping into the spell room.
"No. And the retracting spell to bring back Xander and Anya didn't work either. We just don't have the right things." Willow said, defeated. "I'm worried. I think they might actually send Oz in for them."
"We all do what we have to do." Buffy comforted her. "You're not thinking about Oz that way again...are you?" Willow shrugged.
"I never lost that feeling." Willow shrugged. "What about you seeing Angel. Was it a major wiggins?"
"Creeps? No. It was weird. And sort of wonderful." Buffy confessed.
"Wonderful?" Willow said loudly.
"Yeah. Like when we touched I felt something. Magic. Like it had never left us." She began shaking her head. "I can't ever go down that road again. We just have to save the world and get back to Sunnydale."
"You shouldn't bottle your pain up like that Buffy." Willow put out a fire. "I'm tired. Let's go to bed." And so they headed upstairs. Everything was quiet for the time being, maybe because Xander wasn't there. But it was odd that no one was rushing around looking for him like they would usually be.
Back at the Library...
"I think I found it." Giles spoke up excited, as he cut the silence with his hopeful voice.
"Yes?" Angel looked up from his book. A druid looked on from the other end of the room.
"Hold on." Giles continued his reading. His face fell.
"I'm afraid we can not get the information we need in books. I have established that the period was 1640's but there was a great fire here and most records were lost. It is said the reigning King and Queen were lost in the mysterious fire. No one knows what happened to them...some speculated the gateway opened then..." Giles looked at the Druid.
"Yes. The fire of 1647. All our brothers died. They were helping the king and Queen escape. That is all we know. As far as the gateway being opened I don't think it is true. There was no brothers there to close it. How could it have been closed if it was opened?" The druid said practically.
"That's what I'm here for. To question the unthinkable and find the truth." Giles said determined.
"I thought that was what Mulder was for?" Angel joked. Giles gave him a sharp look and he closed his mouth.
"Maybe you should go help your brothers find our lost friends? Leave me to my work?" Giles advised the druid.
"Yes. The missing humans." The druid said tiredly. "Please hurry Mr Giles. If we do not close the gateway the earth will be in more shambles than it is already." Angel opened his mouth to ask but Giles shook his head.
"We don't want to know. Let's get back to exploring our options..."