Author's note: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, or their characters. I'm just a overworked student; don't sue me.

Helpless

Buffy sat down hard. Something was wrong, and it wasn't the fact that she had just dumped Riley. No, she felt off for some reason.

"Okay," she thought, "I'll finish patrolling then go see Giles."

Hearing a noise in a mausoleum, she went to investigate. The door was padlocked shut. Buffy tugged at the padlock. Nothing happened. She pulled harder. It wouldn't budge. Then it hit her, her Slayer strength was gone.

Within fifteen minutes, she was sitting in Giles' living room.

"Are you sure Buffy?"

"Yes Giles. I told you that already. My strength is gone, but I can still sense vampires."

"This is quite peculiar."

"Giles, what's going on?"

"I honestly don't know."

"Great, just great, so what do I do?"

"Go home. Rest. Concentrate on your school work."

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes, but there was nothing else she could do. As soon as school was out the next day, she rushed to Giles' apartment.

"Did you find anything?"

"I'm afraid not. Has anything changed?"

"No."

"I'll call the others to help with the research. If you go out at night, be sure to stay with Riley; you'll be safer that way."

Buffy decided that this was not the time to tell Giles she had dumped Riley.

Two days later, they still had no answers. Buffy headed back to her dorm as twilight was falling.

"Buffy."

She turned to see Riley, "Hi Riley…"

"What are you doing out here?" he demanded. "Willow told be what happened; it's not safe for you to be out here."

"Nice to see you too."

He grabbed her arm and pushed her into a wall. Buffy gasped and tried to push him away, but without her Slayer strength, she was no match for him. She desperately tried to block the rain of blows he leveled at her. Riley was saying something, but she couldn't make it out.

Suddenly he was gone. She curled into a ball. Soon someone with gentle hands touched her shoulder.

"Buffy?" Angel's voice asked.

Slowly she looked up to meet his concerned eyes.

"Angel?" she whispered.

"Yes."

She burst into tears. Angel gathered her up in his arms gently rocking her. He held her and murmured assurances. Ten minutes later, her voice came tentatively, "Angel, why is your heart beating?"

"What?" was his startled reply.

"I can hear your heart beat."

Angel looked down into her hazel eyes. She smiled and took one of his hands and laid it over his heart. Sure enough he could feel a steady beat.

"Why don't we go see Giles?" he suggested as he helped Buffy to her feet.

"Okay."

Angel led her to his car where Cordelia and another man were waiting, "Buffy, this is Doyle. He works with Cordy and me."

***

Riley sat in Giles' living room explaining what had happened.

"We were attacked by these three vampires. Two males and one female. I tried to fight them off, but they were too strong. They took Buffy."

Giles couldn't help but be suspicious. There was something off about Riley's story.

"What did these vampires look like?"

"One of the men and the woman had dark hair."

Giles caught Willow's eye; she wasn't convinced either. At that moment the door opened, and Cordelia Chase strolled in with a man they didn't know.

"Buffy will be in in a moment," she announced. "Angel's calming her down."

Her companion noticed Riley, "Man, I would not want to be you."

"Cordelia, would you care to explain?" Xander said.

"I think Buffy and Angel will do that."

"Will do what?" Buffy's voice came.

"Explain what's going on," Cordy replied.

"Actually we were hoping Giles could do that for us," Buffy replied.

"Explain what exactly?" Giles asked.

"Why Angel's heart is beating among other things..." her voice trailed off as she noticed Riley. Angel snarled and tighten his arm around Buffy's waist. Giles put two and two together.

"Riley, do you have something to tell us?" Giles asked. "Let me guess, these are the vampires that attacked you and Buffy. More likely they rescued Buffy."

He turned to Cordy, "Am I right?"

Cordelia's smile was frosty, "Yes Giles."

Riley was looking rather pale now.

"So what really happened?" Willow asked.

"I found this man beating Buff up," Angel said. "He ran off once we had arrived. I was calming Buffy down when we noticed that my heart was beating, and I was breathing."

"I see," Giles replied. "Anything else?"

"That's it for now," Buffy replied.

"I see," Giles repeated. "All right. First of all, Riley, there's the door; I'd start running."

Riley took one look around the room and took off. Willow looked up from the book that lay in her lap.

"Giles, I think that I found something."

As they conferred over the book, Buffy turned to Angel, "I never asked you; what are you doing here?"

"Doyle had a vision of you being in danger, so I came."

"Thank you."

"It's no problem."

"Will you two stop staring at each other?"

Buffy stuck her tongue out at Cordelia.

"I think we found the cause of your loss of strength," Giles spoke up. "We've found a spell that drains the strength of a person. It should be simple enough to reverse though there'll be a nasty backlash on the caster."

"How soon can you reverse it?" Buffy asked.

"We should be ready in an hour."

While Willow and Giles prepared to reverse the spell, Buffy and Angel conducted a few tests. It turned out that Angel no longer reacted to crosses or holy water but did retain his strength and sense, and, as far as they could tell, his healing abilities.

Once Giles and Willow were ready, it didn't take them long to reverse the spell. That just left them to figure out what was going on with Angel. Everyone went back to researching.

A half an hour later, a vision struck Doyle full force. When he could speak, he said, "That was the oracles man. It seems you are now half human half vampire. They also mentioned that there would be coming battles where you and the Slayer must fight together. Oh, and there's no curse or clause."

"Well that solves that puzzle," Buffy replied.

Excusing themselves, Buffy and Angel went for a walk.

"So what does this mean for us?" she asked.

"That depends," he replied, "on what you want. I love you, but I also know that I hurt you and..."

He was silenced by her lips against his own. When they broke apart breathless, she said, "I'd like to make this work. But you have responsibilities in L.A. that you can't just ignore."

"True, but L.A. isn't that far from Sunnydale, and one can't work all the time."

"And Sunnydale has survived summers without me."

They grinned at each other as the sin began to rise. As she watched the sunlight bathe Angel in a soft glow, she didn't feel so helpless anymore.

Owari (the end)