A/N: Here it is, another chapter, and thank you for your nice reviews! Gees, my English teacher would kill me for using the adjective 'nice'...

Disclaimer: :-P Whadda ya reckon?

Dedication: All of you! Your reviews brighten up my day!

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For three days now, Keisha had found it too hard to concentrate on much- be it schoolwork, watching T.V., hanging out in the Bronze, talking to Luke and Gracia...

She was still feeling numbed inside. Angel, a vampire? How could it be like that? How come he was good, when all vampires were supposed to be bad? Was he just acting good to avoid Gracia staking him or did he want to destroy the group from the inside? How could someone evil seem so genuinely kind and sweet?

Her mum constantly nagged her to eat something, to empty her plates into her stomach, not the bin. Keisha couldn't. She wasn't hungry, didn't feel anything. Luke asked why she didn't reply to his banter. Keisha couldn't. She wasn't in the mood. Charlie wanted to know why she didn't object to him switching the T.V. channels from the film she was trying to watch to a football game. Keisha couldn't. She wasn't paying attention. Gracia wondered aloud why she hadn't come back to Bridget's insults with some quip that was both scathing and witty. Keisha couldn't. Her mind was all too occupied with Angel, Angel, Angel, to think about arguments.

She sat there in the library, watching Luke and Gracia laughing about something as they came and sat on the opposite side of the table to her. Gracia leaned over and asked her something. Keisha stared at her blankly, not even interested in what her friend had queried.

"Keisha?" Gracia's voice called from a seemingly long distance. "Keisha, hello?"

Luke said something to her, probably telling her of some incident at home. Gracia nodded worriedly and turned back to her.

"Keisha, are you OK?"

Keisha stood up abruptly, feeling the urgent need to be anywhere but here. The chair almost toppled backwards in her haste.

"Sure, sure, fine." she assured them as she slung her bag over her shoulder and picked up her remaining books in her arms. "I'm absolutely fine."

She could feel her brother and her friend watching her carefully as she stalked quickly out of the room. As soon as she was around the corner, she sighed a little. It felt better to be alone again. Just so much easier not to have to make the effort to listen or respond or do anything. Eventually, she reached a side exit and went out of the doors, shutting them behind her softly.

"Hello, Keisha."

Keisha jumped at the familiar, quiet voice and whirled around to see Angel standing at the bottom of the stairs between them with his usual sweet half-smile. She blinked and tried to slow her startled breathing.

"Sorry if I scared you." he apologised. "I didn't mean to."

"No. No, it's OK, you didn't scare me." She hugged her books closer, sudden doubt consuming her mind. She had heard wrong. Angel wasn't dangerous, he couldn't be evil, he couldn't be...one of them. She smiled back and began to walk down the long set of steps towards him. "You came here to see Gracia, right?"

"Yeah. She hasn't gone out patrolling yet, has she?"

"No, she decided to leave it a little while till..." It seemed harder to say what she wanted now, but she forced the words out. "There are more vampires out."

Angel gave something close to a small laugh. "Cecelia won't like that."

Keisha made sure her smile was still there. "Cecelia won't know. She hasn't been around today."

"How come?" Angel was intrigued now, maybe even a little suspicious. Keisha was about to reply that she didn't know when it happened.

Her foot, which was about to go down, suddenly caught on something- some kind of block or small barrier.She overbalanced with a scream and the books flew out of her arms. Then she struck the staircase, the right side of her lower back hitting the next step. She rolled and collided with the next and then the next. She cried out again in pain.

After a shocked second, Angel put his fast reflexes to use and dived out, catching Keisha in his strong arms. He crashed into the steps, bruising his ribs in the process.

For a dazed couple of moments, they stayed where they were. Keisha was all too aware of how close she was to Angel, but told herself that least she knew that he couldn't be a vamp now. He was breathing hard, just like she was. This she repeated over and over in her perplexed mind.

Angel looked at her worriedly as she frowned in pain and her left hand went slowly up to the left side of her forehead to gingerly touch it. She groaned softly. He gently eased her up so that they were both sitting, side by side, on the step.

"Keisha?" he asked softly. "Let me see your head."

"No." Her voice was also soft as she protested, but she still allowed Angel to lightly move her hand from her head. "No, I'll be fine."

He had to stop himself from gasping at what he saw. Somewhere in her violent descent of the staircase, the side of her head had struck the corner of a step and become cut. He glanced at her hand and saw it was covered with an early layer of the blood now trickling down her cheek. Keisha appeared to just about be starting to come around to reality.

"Keisha, we have to get you inside." Angel said carefully and clearly, not quite sure how comprehensible Keisha's mind was working.

She tried to nod but found it hurt her head more to do so. She rubbed at her forehead with her right hand, screwing her eyes shut in hurt. "Yeah. Right." She stood up slowly, Angel standing up with her for support. Keisha took a deep breath and eased away from Angel. "I'm OK. I'll be fine." She swayed slightly and his arm shot out around her waist to steady her. She leaned heavily on him as he half-carried her back into the school and towards the library. Within a minute, they were walking through the doors, attracting the attention of both Gracia and Luke, who were still sitting at the table talking.

Gracia gasped as she got up quickly and rushed over. Luke sat there, gaping in a stunned silence at his drowsy sister.

"What the hell happened, Angel?" Gracia demanded anxiously, putting Keisha's free arm around her to help support her. "Why is she bleeding?"

"She's bleeding?" Luke asked, getting up as they sat Keisha in one of the free chairs. "What happened?"

"She fell down the stairs." Angel looked at his panicking sister grimly. "Or was pushed."

Luke swore and Gracia bit her lip, turning to him. "Luke, there should be a first-aid kit somewhere around here. Can you find it?"

"Where would it be?" he asked as Gracia studied Keisha's wound herself.

"Try Cecelia's office. Quick." Gracia turned to Angel. "Tell me the whole story."

Luke raced into Cecelia's dim office as Angel began to pour out the whole tale and flicked on the light switch. The room was instantly bathed in a bright glow and he began his search of the immaculate room. Where would a first-aid kit be kept? There was a filing cabinet- he could probably outrule that first off. His troubled turquoise eyes scanned the few shelves quickly. No, no luck there. Then there was a desk, with a few neat folders of notes and a tray of orderly papers. Nothing.

But there was a drawer also, and he pulled it open rapidly. Then stopped. It contained a large black box, obviously locked but what he was looking for, and a clear, smooth globe of crystal. Probably a paper weight- his elder sister Mel had one like it in her college dorm. There were a couple of candles that appeared to have been used, a packet of incense sticks, and two or three small old books, the titles of which seemed to be in some ancient incomprehendable language. He slammed it shut and whirled around. Then he spotted the white box on top of the filing cabinet- his panic had obviously caused him to overlook it. He snatched it up and went back out to the main library.

Gracia nodded at him as he put it down onto the table and opened it, pulling out cotton wool, antiseptic wipes and a head bandage. She set about cleaning and binding Keisha's cut.

"Luke?" Keisha asked, voice sounding a little lost and high.

"I'm right here." He said, taking her right hand and squeezing it in support. "You're gonna be fine."

Keisha tried to turn her head towards Gracia, but found she couldn't as her friend was busy cleaning up the blood from her fce. Her eyes darted between the Slayer and Angel, who was watching her with sorrow in his dark eyes.

"Luke's right for once, Keisha," Gracia attempted to lighten the atmosphere with a joke. "You'll be OK. You're lucky this wasn't worse."

Keisha closed her eyes, trying to remember something and to forget the pain. Suddenly, her eyes opened as she remembered.

Remembered how icy cold Angel's skin was. Remembered what she had heard.

She pulled away from Gracia to look at her properly. She glanced at Angel and then back at Gracia. The Slayer watched her apprehensively, wondering what was coming next. She didn't have long to wait.

"When were you going to tell us?" she asked quietly, shaking her head slowly so as not to intensify the pain.

There was a pause, during which the Irish siblings exchanged a glance. "Tell you what?" Gracia asked eventually.

Keisha looked at Angel sadly. "When did you want us to know that he was a vampire?"

Luke started. "What?"

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Hate ta leave ya there...;-D Review plz, just luv reviews. More Spike next chapter PROBABLY...don reckon you need the whole Angel explination again, so we get more Spike! ;-D **big grin** I'll be working on the corrections for Grace McCormick's Diary this week so I can re-upload, but I'll try to get the next chapter done for the weekend.