Many apologies that this took so long. First I had to write it and then FF.N was having all the upgrades and *then* I couldn't log in. Grrrrr. Anyways- here's chapter two. Hugs and flowers to my beautiful beta boo QueenGwenyvere. Without her I couldn't post this fic. And a huge thanks to my "Big sissy" Amy. This is for you girl. All the legal stuff and what not is in the first chapter. This is Buffy/Angel shippyness with a mild plot added for flavor. I have roughly five chapters planned but they may take a while to get here. Please bear with me. I promise Angel will be in the next chapter.

Buffy huddled deeper into her coat as she hurried across the empty intersection. Sunnydale wasn't a popular town, and being on top of the Hellmouth had killed any hopes for the town's tourist draw. And for as dense as the townsfolk were, it caused the more sensitive people to pick up on the bad vibe the town secreted. The streets were never busy enough to the point of causing one to look both ways more then once before crossing the street. Add in the fact that it was at least an hour past midnight and snowing. Any sane person would be in bed, snuggled in the covers, dreaming of............

"What do normal people dream about?" Buffy wondered to herself. "I can barely remember a time when my dreams weren't about demons or vampires rising from their graves." She sighed, her breath forming a white cloud in the air. "Or dreams about my death, or the deaths of my friends. The only good dreams I have anymore are the ones with Angel in them." She smiled. Angel. Just the thought of him was enough to make her smile. Angel had always been there for her before, and she knew he'd be there now.

She turned down a side street and then again into an ally. The snow in the ally wasn't the pure white color as it had been in the cemetery—it was a dark dirty brown, littered with bits of trash, cigarette butts, and a few empty beer bottles. But Buffy's eyes weren't looking at the ground. She was starring at a door towards the end of the ally. She quickened her pace to nearly a run. "Oh Angel. Please be home. Please be home"' Reaching the door she knocked once, twice, three times. No answer. "Angel? It's me. Open up." Buffy called to the door. A moment passed. While she normally didn't invite herself into the apartment unless Angel knew she was coming before hand and was expecting her, Buffy tried the doorknob. It didn't move. "Damn it!" She swore. "Why the hell does a vampire need to lock his door?" She went over to the window, but the blinds were tightly closed and the window was too high up and, "Way too small for my butt to fit through."

Buffy groaned, went back to the door and stared at it, willing it to open. Minuets went by but Buffy never blinked. "Where did you go? I need you and you aren't here." Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked, breaking the trance she had fallen in. Her knees buckled and she fell down into the dirty snow, her upper body supported by Angel's unyielding door. Her inner walls collapsed at the same moment her outer walls did. As she lay in the snow, Buffy's mind was assaulted by the memories of her fight with her mother.

She had gotten home late. The slaying had been normal, but she had two newborns that decided to take their own sweet time in rising. She had been camped outside of one of the many churches in Sunnydale for over 3 hours before the vamps—a married couple who had been walking to their car after a late-night movie—had appeared. Buffy knew that slaying in the wintertime took longer, but it was too dark in the graveyard to do her homework while she waited, so she had left it at home.

Her mother was waiting for her when she arrived home, Buffy's backpack and schoolbooks scattered across the coffee table. Joyce was holding several papers in her hands, Buffy recognized them to be her latest math test- the one she had failed. Badly. Buffy groaned. She hadn't been planning on showing that paper to her mother. Or any of the other papers that were by her mother.

Joyce looked up from the paper, "When were you going to show this to me?" She indicated the large red F at the top of the page.

"Ummmmm..."

Her mother rose from the couch, the test still in her hand. "You weren't going to tell me about this were you?" Her voice was low and soft, but it wasn't comforting. Her mother used that voice when she was really, really mad.

"I was Mom. I…was just...waiting for the right time."

"The date on this test is over a week old! How long were you going to wait? Another week? A month? Ever?"

"I was going to show it to you. I swear I was!" She knew it sounded bad, and that her mother wasn't buying it.

Joyce was losing patience fast. Suddenly she threw the paper in question across the room. "Don't you dare lie to me Buffy Summers! You know full well that you weren't going to show me that paper!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Your school called this afternoon. Principal Snyder wants to have a meeting with me as soon as possible. He said you've been cutting classes again and that you missed two major tests in the last month alone." She put her hands on Buffy's shoulders and shook her slightly. "What's wrong Buffy? Why is this happening again? You were doing so well here and now......" she let the words drift.

"Nothing is wrong mom. I'm doing fine.... I just—"

"No, Buffy. 'Doing fine' isn't scoring F's on the tests you decide you show up for. That isn't fine. Staying out till all hours of the night isn't okay either. "

"Mom... let me explain..."

"No." Joyce inhaled, drawing herself up to her full height. "No. You missed you chance to explain when you didn't show me the test." She stared Buffy straight in the eye. "Until your grades rise back into the normal zone you are forbidden to go out after school. No parties, no dances, no studying at Willow's. Nothing. If you need Willow's help she'll have to come over here. Am I clear?"

"But.... but... but that's not fair! I couldn't—" Buffy tried desperately to make her mother understand something she couldn't possibly. Buffy longed to tell her mom about her slaying at times like this, but she couldn't. If Joyce knew that her daughter was the Slayer, she would be in danger and that was something Buffy wouldn't risk. So she lied. She had to.

But Joyce wasn't finished yet. "And you'll remain in the house until school starts again. I cannot allow you to be out this late at night." She nodded her head, content with her parenting. The books would be proud. Taking a step back she indicated Buffy's assorted books and papers. "I think you have some work you can do. Take it upstairs."

Buffy was stunned. Her mother had never done anything like this to her before. Sure she had been grounded for a month after the incident with the gym back in LA, but that was expected. But this was totally different. She *was* doing well in school—compared to what her grades where before she moved to Sunnydale. Here she had real friends who helped her, not just with schoolwork, but with the slaying. She'd never had friends who knew about her other life. And Giles, though he could be stuffy, was a wonderful Watcher and friend. And now her mother was locking her away from them.

"Tonight. Buffy." Her mother's cold voice cut through her daze. Shaking herself out of it, she strode over to the table and gathered her things. Without looking at her mother, Buffy turned and started upstairs to her room. She was seething inside and she wanted to get away from the cause of her anger before she got into anymore trouble. But then she heard her mother mutter softly to herself something that wasn't meant for Buffy's ears, but that her spider senses enabled her to hear.

"Why can't you be a normal girl Buffy? What went wrong?" Joyce sighed then walked towards the kitchen, her footsteps loud then becoming muted as she drifted out of hearing range.

Buffy stood frozen of the steps, her knuckles white as she held her books in a death grip. She could feel her heart shatter and splinter into a thousand pieces. She made it to her room and dropped her books on her bed before sitting down next to them. Her eyes filled with tears as she opened her window and crawled out. She couldn't stay here any longer. Her mother's words seemed to float up the stairs and into her room, taunting her with their ugliness. But even after she jumped off the roof and started back into the night the words still followed.

"Why can't you be normal? What went wrong?"

Huddled in a ball in the wet snow, her arms wrapped around her knees, Buffy started to weep. Her tears soaked her pants as she pressed her face to her knees; her breath made harsh choking sounds in the quiet night as she sobbed out her pain. "I'm a freak. I'm no better then the monsters I kill. I'll never be normal. I'll never be the child my mother wants. I'm a failure."

Buffy cried until her body was too drained, both physically and emotionally, to produce any more tears. Slowly her mind shutdown, exhausted from her emotional night. She never noticed that her face was numb from the cold, or that her body was shaking from exposure. As she drifted to sleep, she whispered a single word. A soft cry of help to the only person she truly felt loved by. "Angel......"

A snowflake drifted down and landed on her nose, melting slowly as other special creations drifted down from the sky.

To be continued...

Note- I'm sorry to say this but I don't have chapter three drafted yet. I'm acting in a local play right now and haven't been able to get to writing. Please hang in there, I *will* finish this story! Thank you for your support.

-LadyCallie