Buffy sat wrapped in Xander's arms a few hours later. They had moved to Giles' apartment a few hours earlier. Dimly she could hear Tara and Giles researching in the other room. Dawn had left the apartment soon after Willow arrived wanting fresh air. Willow sat across from the two staring at Buffy.
"Will, can you please stop boring holes through
my head," Buffy finally snapped at her, tired of her watching.
"Sorry, I must have zoned out there," she lied.
"Xander why don't you leave us alone so we could talk." Willow said in
a voice that was an order not a question.
Not sure what to do Xander sat there as the tension
continued to rise. Making a decision he whispered something to Buffy standing
up he said, "well I am off to find a butter knife." He went into the other
room and picked up a book that was on the table.
Inside the living room things were not going well.
As soon as Xander left the now familiar coldness started coming back to
Buffy. Willow watched as she began to shiver slightly a confused look on
her face.
"Can I ask you a question Buffy?" Willow waited
a few moments but got no response from Buffy as she looked for a blanket.
Fed up Willow blurted out the forst question that came into her head. "What
was hell like?"
Startled Buffy came to a standstill in her search. Slowly she turned back to Willow, her eyes flashing with some emotion. She opened her mouth to tell Willow what was on her mind when a cry from Giles interrupts them.
Leaving Willow alone for now Buffy went into the dinning room and stood in front of Xander. Instantly his hands slid around her waist drawing her into him giving her something to live on. "What did you find Giles?" she asked.
Giles looked up at her and saw her trusting him completely to fix the problem. In the pit of his stomach he again felt the pulling. Fighting it down he focused on Buffy. "Only you champion can fight this fight for you. I am not sure what it will be or even when, but this is a fight you can't be in."
"Call Angel Buffy. He said he would come if you called."
Willow spoke into the silence that followed Giles' announcement.
Xander stepped back as if he had been slapped at her words, his face
paling. Giles took of his glasses and began rubbing them the pulling getting
harder to ignore. Tara sat there her mouth hanging slightly open as she
looked at Willow.
Buffy stood there anger rising inside her. Trying to stay calm she took a deep breath. That failing she went upstairs into Giles' bedroom and punched screamed into a pillow for a few minutes.
Calmer she went downstairs to see everyone except
for Giles in pretty much the same positions. Slowly she walked over to
Willow the anger coming back and began yelling. "How the hell do you know
who my champion is or isn't. Staying on that topic how does Angel know
I am alive? I certainly didn't call him since I came back to tell him that
I was alive. I didn't even know he knew I was dead, who told him that Willow
you? And you wanted to know what hell was like? Well I can't tell you see
cause even if your spell was what brought me back which it isn't I was
in heaven." Buffy took a deep breath trying to calm down. She was aware
of Xander crossing over to a startled Dawn in the doorway, who had heard
every word.
"What spell?" Giles asked coming back into the room
a mug of tea in his hands. "Xander, take Buffy and Dawn back to your place,
I'll call if I find anything else. Tara could you do some shopping for
me there is a list on the fridge?"
"I'll go too," Willow said as she inched towards
the door.
"No, Willow, we need to talk." He told her sitting
down as he hoped that he could control things long enough.