Part 22 - Hunting
One week later
Wednesday afternoon

"So, Friday's your birthday, got any big plans for number
eighteen?" Willow asked. She and Buffy were walking back to
Giles' after school. Vampire activity was up for the past week so there
would be no rest for the Slayer this weekend.

"Plans?" Buffy replied. "If Giles has anything to say about it,
I think my plans will consist of fun with Mr. Pointy."

"Oh come on, Buffy, Giles knows it's your birthday. He wouldn't
make you Patrol."

"You think?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'll bet you
twenty bucks that I'm on Slayer duty on Friday." They arrived
at Giles' door, and she knocked.

"Buffy," Giles answered it. "Willow. Come in," he invited.

"Hey Giles," Buffy said as she and Willow walked in. "Slayer
reporting for duty?"

"Yes, well, a sweep of the cemeteries will keep you busy, I
imagine," Giles replied. "I do hope you're not going out alone,
though."

"I'll be fine, Giles," Buffy said. "I need this right now.
Anything to get my mind off everything else."

"Do you think she's going to be all right?" Willow asked Giles
when Buffy had left.

"I think so," Giles said. "She's physically able to handle
things on her own, I don't doubt that. I don't want her to make
a habit out of slaying as a way to get her mind off her worries,
though, it's not mentally healthy."

***********
8 pm

Buffy had been following a male vampire for ten minutes, though
she was beginning to tire of it now. He'd looked like a
fledgling, and she had been hoping he'd lead her to a nest of
vampires. So far no luck, though. He appeared to be wandering
aimlessly, which was strange behavior for vampires.

Before becoming interested in him, she'd been to five different
cemeteries. She'd staked more vampires that she could count
that had just risen from their graves. But that was no
challenge. Then she'd found a crypt full of slime demons, which
had
been more fun to kill but quite messy.

Buffy jumped as the vampire whirled around to face her. "Oh,
guess you're not as dumb as you look after all," she said with
a grin as she pulled out her stake. "Wanna play?"

"I want to feed," he replied with a grin.

"I'm sorry. The menu today doesn't include the Slayer," Buffy
said and stepped aside as he charged her. She turned to face
him and ducked his fist, then threw one of her own. Her fist
connected with his face, but he kicked with his foot and knocked

her feet out from under her. Buffy fell to her butt, and rolled
aside as he reached for her. She lunged with her stake, and
he roared in anger, but didn't vanish into a cloud of dust as he
apparently expected. He blinked in surprise, and said, "You
missed?" realizing the stake had gone below his heart.

"No, I didn't miss," Buffy said. "I just wanted to beat you up
more, before I staked you." she added as she jumped to her
feet.

He growled and grabbed her by the throat with one hand, lifting
her off her feet. She kicked out with both feet, causing him
to lose balance. They both tumbled to the ground, and scrambled
back to their feet. She punched him in the stomach as he rose
to his feet, then followed through with an uppercut to his chin.
She succeeded in dazing him, and continued to punch him
repeatedly in the face, not giving him an opportunity to go on
the offensive.

"Wha--" she squeaked in surprise as a hand landed on her
shoulder and pulled her aside. Angel stepped into view and
staked the vampire quickly, then turned to her.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!" Buffy yelled.

"I WAS ABOUT TO ASK YOU THE SAME QUESTION!" Angel yelled back.

"I WAS HANDLING THINGS FINE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" Buffy spat
back and turned to go.

"WERE YOU?" Angel asked. He paused to compose himself, and
added, more calmly, "Because from my point of view, you looked pretty
much out of control, Buffy."

She spun around to face him. "What on EARTH are you talking
about?! I'M SLAYING! NOW GET OUT OF MY WAY, I HAVE TO FINISH
PATROLLING!!!" Buffy yelled and turned to walk away a second
time.

"Oh no you don't," Angel said, and grabbed her by the arm,
turning her back to face him.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Buffy said angrily and pulled her arm out of
Angel's grasp.

"I'm sorry," Angel held his hands up in an apologetic gesture.
"Don't leave like this, Buffy. I'm not criticizing, I'm
just worried."

"I don't need your worry," Buffy replied sullenly. "And why are
you following me around? Because I'd rather you didn't, I
wouldn't want to get confused and stake you before I realized it
was you."

"I saw you in the cemetery an hour ago, and stopped to see if
you needed my help."

"I don't," Buffy stated.

Angel just sighed, and said, "I watched you stake somewhere
around twenty rising fledglings, without expending any effort at
all. I've seen you on patrol with extra energy to burn off
before, so it didn't bother me. But when you went into that
crypt of twenty slime demons without thinking twice about it,
that's when I began to get worried."

"Why? I handled it!" Buffy protested.

"Yeah, you did. But I've never seen you do anything so reckless
before, Buffy. It was obvious you weren't just burning off
extra energy, there was something more to it than that. Then,
with that fledgling, Buffy, I couldn't believe what I saw. You
stalked him for ten minutes, and then you beat him to a bloody
mess for another ten before I stepped in. How much longer
would you have gone on before you staked him?"

"I don't get what the big is," Buffy shrugged. "He's a vampire,
he deserved it."

"I'm not denying he should have been staked," Angel said. "But
why all the playing with him, when it was very obvious you
could have staked him in two seconds?"

"I would have staked him eventually, but someone butted in,"
Buffy replied angrily. "And so what if I was breaking up the
monotony of patrol by beating up a vampire before dusting him?
Why do YOU care?"

"I care because that's not _patrolling_. That's _hunting_."

"Um, what's the difference?" she wondered with a frown.

"The difference is that when you were _hunting_ tonight you
reminded me of the way vampires hunt their prey," Angel replied.
"And that is what scared me."

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes. "You can't even compare the two things,"
Buffy muttered.

"Oh, can't I?" Angel replied. "I think I know the hunting habits of vampires
quite well. I agree that slayers patrolling and vampires hunting
*should* be two completely different things, but was that really
the case just now? I wish you could have seen yourself following that
fledgling around. You were playing with him, like vampires taunt
their prey. Then you used him as a punching bag, instead of quickly
ending it and moving on."

Buffy opened her mouth to argue again, but then saw something in
Angel's eyes that told her he was serious. She sighed. "Okay, so
I wasn't patrolling in the best frame of mind," she admitted.
"But I still don't think it was serious as you do."

"Buffy, there's something in every slayer, something
instinctive, that helps them do what they do. It's what keeps
you from feeling bad for killing demons, what allows you to be part of
and see such incredible violence. It's a part of you, but it's
very dangerous to let that part of you take over too much. You
have to control it, or it will take over." At Buffy's skeptical
look, Angel added, "I need you to trust me on this one. I've
seen it happen before."

"Angel, I'm fine. You're over-reacting. Just go home, and let me
Patrol."

"Am I really overreacting? Reverse the roles, Buffy. What would
you have thought?"

Buffy stopped to consider Angel's question. She hated to admit
it, but he had a point. She glared at him for a moment, trying
to think of a witty comeback, then sighed. She was tired of the
verbal sparring, anyway. "Fine," she shrugged. "I give. I guess
I probably would have thought you'd lost control."

"Alright then. That's all I was trying to say," Angel replied.

"I get it. I'm sorry I worried you." Buffy said. "I'm also sorry I yelled.
I know you're just trying to look out for me, and I do appreciate it."

"I'm sorry I yelled too," Angel said. "Truce?" he asked with a
tentative smile.

Buffy smiled. "Truce. Now, I really do have to finish patrolling.
Since you're already here...wanna help?"

"Sure," Angel nodded. "Not because I don't trust you, though."

"Of course not," Buffy replied. "I can always use the help,
anyway."

************