Hey people! I'm back with another part of Recipe for Disaster? Aren't you excited? Yeah right. Anyway, sorry for the major delay in updating, but I've been busy beyond belief. And someone reported me to ff.net administration b/c they found my opinions of characters and what I called rated R to be misleading and improper and my account was frozen for a week. I was ticked off. But I'm back now, I may be a little bitter, but I'm back. So, on with the story!

Always. That word echoed through Buffy Summers' head as she prepared to start her day. It was her first day back on the job since the bank robbery and shoot out nearly two weeks earlier. She hadn't seen Angel since that awful day. He had ridden with her to the hospital and stayed to make sure she was all right, but then had left. Giles had put her on a ten-day medical leave and she had had no reason to see Angel. He had had no reason to see her either.

But, Buffy thought, for some reason that doesn't make me happy. If you're honest with yourself Summers, you know you would have like for him to have had a good reason to come visit you.

"Hey Summers, come in here and get your assignment." Sergeant Riley Finn yelled to Buffy as she passed his office. She sighed in resignation and walked in.

"So, what do I get? And it had better not be something a rookie can do." Buffy warned sternly. Riley had a knack for handing her all the cases and jobs no one else wanted. He did offer to give her all the good ones if she went out with him however.

"There's an abundance of paperwork you need to get done, I'm sure. But as soon as you're done with that, you're getting put on call for the SVU."

"Special Victims Unit? Why?"

"Chief thinks you're compassionate enough to work the cases and tough enough to handle them. Same for Detective Sullivan. So, that's your assignment. Were I you, I'd go get on that paperwork. I'd be glad to help if you'd say, go out to dinner with me tonight."

"Thanks Riley, but I think I can handle it on my own. Besides, a Detective's paperwork is just slightly different from that of a Sergeant." She said, reminding him again of the differences in their rank. He offered a tight smile that she returned before walking out of his small office.

Buffy was emerged in piles of paperwork when Angel arrived in their office. She had reports spread out all over her desk and was filling out no less than five all at the same time. He smiled at her determination to get them all done and set a styrofoam cup of coffee in front of her. She looked up and offered a thankful smile.

"I forgot all about coffee this morning when I left my apartment. You are a life saver."

"You might want to repeat that statement when I tell you that I already have copies of all of those reports done and filed away for the Chief to look at. You don't have to do them all over again. Just fill out the affidavits."

"Angel," Buffy said, shaking her head, "I love you." She teased, closing the files. "The affidavits are the first things I do. They've already been turned in. Have you talked to Finn yet?"

"Yeah, he said to ask you if you two were still on for dinner tonight."

Buffy stood up and walked to the door. "Hey Finn!" she yelled. When he looked up she continued. "In your dreams!" she finished. Then she turned and walked back into their office.

Angel raised an eyebrow at the display. "So, I take it the two of you have some unresolved issues?"

"Unresolved? No way. He's the guy in charge of assignments. HE always gives me the crappy ones with the promise of the good ones if I go out with him. I think he'd let me pick my assignment if I went to bed with him."

"That's quite an arrangement."

"There is no arrangement. I don't like him, so I either petition Giles for something better or take whatever he gives me. It makes no difference to me. Either way I end up with something worth doing. Most of the time anyway."

"There is that 'most of the time' thing stuck in there. So we get SVU this time around. Have you ever worked it before?"

"Once, four years ago. My first rotation was the SVU. I went, did the case, a real messy one, and then got put on a desk job for a while before I got put in a squad car."

"What happened?"

"One the case?"

"Yeah. Who was the victim? What happened to them?"

"A sixteen year old student at Sunnydale High. Her father was a registered pedophile, but her mother didn't know when she married him. When she turned twelve he began sexual improprieties. Kissing her, fondling her breasts, that sort of thing, but nothing that would ever hold up in court. Finally when she turned fifteen he began raping her. She turned him in when she was a little over sixteen and a half and the next day she turned up dead. Raped, beaten and strangled. That was my first case as a police officer. We did end up putting him away. He lasted two weeks in jail before the other inmates killed him. However, he didn't get killed just for his daughter. While he was on the loose and we didn't have enough evidence to put him away, or even arrest him, he raped several other girls. Towards the end he got sloppy and forgot to use a condom. That girl was the one that finally put him away. We convicted him of the other crimes using videos he had made of the encounters. We found them when we finally got a search warrant for his house."

"That's awful. Who was the last victim? Anyone around here?"

"Yeah. His daughter's best friend. And my younger sister."

"So you let it get personal. In that situation that is completely understandable. I would've wanted to kill the son of a bitch myself."

"I nearly did. That's why I got stuck behind a desk. I was the one to catch him. We fought and I almost shot him. We were wrestling over my gun and I got the upper hand somehow. Next on the scene was Finn and he reported that I was waving my gun like a mad woman trying to shoot him. Apparently he had to forcibly disarm me and complete the arrest himself."

"What really happened?"

"I barely stopped myself from shooting him and when Finn got there he wanted to be the hero so he knocked me out with his gun and completed the arrest. Got a field promotion for it too."

"That must have pissed you off."

"That did more that piss me off. I was only nineteen, a newbie and he had already made me look unstable and psychotic."

Buffy fell silent after that as she filed away her affidavits and cleared her desk of paperwork. Finally she finished the job and dug through her personal files. Finding the one she was after, she tossed it to Angel. He looked down and saw the reports made on the rape case. He began sifting through them until Xander walked in and perched on Buffy's desk.

"Hey. I didn't know you were back today."

"Yeah, here I am. What are you doing for lunch?"

"Getting a nice greasy hamburger and a pile of fries. Sound like something you'd be interested in?"

"Nah. I think I'll call Will and see what she's doing. I haven't seen her in three weeks."

"Good idea. She has some news for you."

"Like what?"

"I'm not allowed to say."

"Spit it out Harris."

"Fine. She's pregnant. Just found out yesterday. She's already three months."

"She's three months pregnant and she didn't know? That's unusual."

"Tell me about it. I said that I bet she had a sneaking suspicion and just didn't want to tell anybody."

"Probably. So, I'll see you later then. Tell Anya and the baby I said hi."

"Will do."

Buffy sighed when Xander left and picked up the phone to call Willow. She hoped she hadn't already made plans for lunch. She dialed the familiar number and Willow picked up on the fourth ring. She sounded out of breath and in a hurry.

"Osbourne Computers, Willow speaking. How may I help you?"

"Congratulations Willow."

"Buffy! Oh, how are you? I'm so sorry I didn't come see you in the hospital, but things have been so hectic lately. You have no idea what we've been going through. All our systems got a virus and we had to reboot and reinstall everything into all our computers. It has taken so long you wouldn't believe me of I told you."

"Well I'm glad it's all okay now."

"Who said it's all okay? I certainly didn't. I was here till two in the morning last night and I got back here at seven this morning. I don't think we'll ever get to go home."

"I think that you and Oz need to go home and get in bed. You need some sleep or you'll never get anything done."

"Buffy, we're fine. And we're older than you so we all know what we're doing."

Buffy scowled at the age comment even though it was true. All her friends were three or four years older than she was. Willow and Oz were twenty six, Xander was twenty seven, Anya was twenty five, Cordelia and Doyle were twenty six, Wesley was thirty and Gunn and Fred were twenty eight. And she was only twenty-three.

"Don't remind me." Buffy said tersely. "Anyway, do you have time for lunch today?"

"I have to meet my parents to tell them about the baby. Sorry, but it's gonna have to wait until this weekend"

"I have another meeting with my mom on Saturday. It'll be the same old why aren't you married yet? I want grandchildren to spoil. Why did you have to become a detective? You'll never meet any nice men that way. It's not too late to become a doctor. You should go back to college, things. So, Sunday?"

"I can't. My niece is coming to stay with me and you know how she is."

"Yeah. Well Will, I better get off of here. Duty calls. I'll call you later tonight."

"Great. Bye."

"Bye."

Buffy hung up the phone and stood. She'd seen one of the regular detectives from SVU coming their direction and she wanted to head them off before they wasted her entire morning drilling her on protocol. She met him halfway across the room and held out her hand for him to shake. He warily took it and shook her hand.

"Detective Roberts, I'm Detective Summers. It's nice to see you. What's the case?"

"Don't know yet. We got a call about a body being found down by the docks. Female, young, around twenty, skirt is bunched around her waist and her blouse is torn open. I don't have time to drill you, so I'm gonna have to trust you. We've got more calls than we can handle right now, so this on is yours."

"What other calls are there?"

"One's where the victims are still alive and we can do some real good."

Buffy had a juvenile urge to stick her tongue out at him and was rather embarrassed when she succumbed to that urge as soon as his back was turned. She heard a bout of warm laughter beside her and looked over to see Angel laughing at her. She turned bright red from further embarrassment. Angel just laughed harder.

"I'm glad one of us is amused." She said bitterly.

"I'm more than amused Buff. I think that's downright hilarious. Come on, I got the address from Giles and we're supposed to be down there five minutes ago."

"How far away is it?"

"With me driving? About ten minutes. Come on. We've got to get going or the Detectives on the scene are going to kick our asses. They don't like being stuck with a body and not being allowed to investigate anything."

Buffy relented and followed Angel out to his car, a Corvette convertible. She slid in the passenger's seat and buckled up. Seconds later, he slid the car into gear and they pulled out of the parking lot. Angel was right. With him behind the wheel, they arrived at the crime scene in ten minutes flat. It would have taken her at least fifteen.

"Detectives Sullivan and Summers?" a young police officer asked as they got out of Angel's car.

"Yeah. What've we got?"

"Girl. She's around twenty from what we could see. She's beat up pretty bad, wearing something real skimpy and her skirt's clear up around her waist, shirt's ripped open too. Buttons are clear gone. She don't stink yet, so I bet she hasn't been here a long time. Feel free to take a look, but I gotta warn you, it's pretty nasty back in there."

"Thanks Officer. I think that's what we'll do. You can go ahead and leave if you want to."

"Thanks ma'am."

"No problem, just make sure to fill out your report and send it in. That should be all we need from you."

"Thanks. And I'll do that as soon as I get back to the station."

"Great. Angel, you wanna go see what we got?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Angel led the way into the back of the dingy old building. Buffy had pulled on gloves by the time they got there. "Morgue's full up, so we need to do the prelim stuff here. Look for fabric and skin, blood and stuff like that. You take the surrounding areas, I'll do the body."

"Sounds good to me."

For nearly an hour, Buffy and Angel worked at gathering physical evidence. Buffy did a preliminary rape kit sample and collected hair and skin from the body. She also scraped a little blood from underneath the fingernails.

"Looks like she took a chunk out of him when she went down." Buffy commented, holding up the bloody swab. "We might be able to get a match off of this. It depends on what kind of testing the Chief wants done. If he does full DNA testing then we'll get a positive I.D, but if he goes the cheaper road and just lets us find out what type it is, and if there are any diseases, this could take a while."

"Which does he normally do?"

"The cheap one. See, unlike the LAPD and the SFPD, we're just a locally funded program. We don't get very many state funds, let alone national ones, so we have to pay for this stuff out of our own pockets. Giles skimps on testing and keeps all of us detectives on hand."

"That sucks. Do we have to transport the body too? Or just sit on it until the morgue arrives?"

"Do you really think we can get a body in your flashy little convertible?"

"I did it in San Francisco."

"Go call the morgue and ask them, and then we'll go from there, but we still have evidence to collect."

"I know. I have worked a scene before, contrary to popular belief."

"I never said you haven't. And you'll have to excuse my bossiness, I'm used to working with rookies who would step on the body if I didn't tell them not to."

"I thought you didn't work with a partner?"

"Normally I don't. But on scenes, I am required by law to have another officer on the scene. Usually the only ones available are rookies. After the preliminary exam of the body and scene, I send them home to have nightmares for about six months. Half of them never come back to work after going to a murder. Or a suicide. Those are almost as bad."

"Some of the suicides I've been to are worse than the murders. Especially when they use a large caliber gun and there's gray matter all over. It can get sort of disgusting."

"I know. Well, are you going to call the morgue?"

"Yeah. I'm on my way."

While Angel was gone, Buffy shifted through some of the things nearby that had already been photographed. Several bugs crawled out and she caught them and put them in little jars. She knew an entomologist at the local college who could tell her what they were and if they were there because of the body. When Angel came back with a body bag, she guessed the order was to transport the body and walked over to help him unfold it.

"You take head, I'll take her feet and we lift on three." Buffy said, pulling on gloves so she didn't contaminate the body. She and Angel had already donned plastic robes so they didn't get any fibers on the body. They lifted her with relative ease and moments later, she was zipped up inside a body bag ready to be transported to the county morgue.

"Do you want to sit on the scene or go with the body?"

"Your car, you drive her, I'll sit on the scene. Try and collect some more evidence if I can."

"Great. I'll see you in a few. Be back as soon as I can."

"You'd better be. I hate this job."

"Hey, I offered to let you drive my car. You said you'd rather stay here."

"Don't remind me."

Five minutes later, Angel was gone. He drove as fast as the law allowed him to and got the body to the county morgue in under half an hour. He and an intern got it onto a gurney and delivered it into an unused autopsy room. The intern uncovered the body and began the preliminary identification processes. Angel decided to stick around and see who it turned out to be. He had a bad feeling.

"I'll be able to get the results rather quickly by putting the fingerprints into the computer. Id she's a resident of the U.S, we'll know who she is in twenty minutes. Can you hang around or do you need to get back to your partner?"

"Buffy's been doing this for four years. She'll be okay for another hour. Let's see who she is. That'll bring us one step closer to finding out who did this to her."

"Yeah." Dr. White agreed, scanning the fingerprints. "So, you and your partner did the rape kit?"

"She did. All the stuff has already been sent to the rape unit upstairs. They'll determine if anything is present."

"Good. What else was there around? Fibers, blood, hair?"

"Fibers and blood, but there's a good chance it's her own blood. There weren't any defensive wounds that we saw, but there may still be some that we can't detect just by a quick examination."

"Yeah. I'll look for those before I begin the autopsy. Let me know if you find anything else. Detective, this is going to be a few more minutes, would you mind if I went upstairs to let my boss know the body's here and get a couple cups of coffee for us?"

"Go ahead. I'll stay here."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

Five minutes later, Dr. White returned with two cups of coffee and handed one to Angel. Then, he walked over to the computer to check the progress. "Okay, we've got a name. Looks like the vic's Tracy King. Resident of San Diego."

Angel grabbed his coat and was out the door in seconds. Buffy had just been put in grave danger.

Buffy was crouching to collect some fibers in the vicinity of where the body had been laying when she heard footsteps approaching from behind her. Assuming that it was Angel, she turned around. It wasn't Angel. It was a large muscular man wearing an expensive suit and smoking a very smelly cigar.

"I'm sorry, this is a crime scene and you can't be here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"I don't think that's possible Detective. See, I know all about your murder. I committed it. And now I have to clean up the mess. So, if you'll just come with me, I'll make sure you get a bullet to the head. Very painless. You won't feel a thing, I promise."

"Sir, I'm placing you under arrest for first degree murder. Put your hands in the air and turn around." Buffy said, removing her gun and her handcuffs from her belt. "Sir, if you don't do as I say, this will not be a pleasant situation."

"So you expect me to just obey whatever you say? Lady, I just admitted to murder, and I have every intention of killing you. You do not expect me to just let you take me in do you?"

"Yes, I do. Now please put your hands in the air."

Just as Buffy said that the man charged her, and before she could fire a shot he was on top of her. She struggled with him for several seconds, but in the end he was just too strong. He bashed her on the head with the butt of her gun and the world went black. She slumped to the ground and the man stood up and brushed himself off.

"Well. That was interesting. She put up a pretty good fight for a woman." He said, wiping the gun of all fingerprints. She leaned over her and checked quickly to see if she had any skin or blood under her nails. Finding none, he dragged her limp body to a secluded spot and went back to his car for two long pieces of rope. He tied her up and gagged her, then dragged her over to the edge of the docks and dumped her in the ocean.

Buffy woke when she hit the water. She struggled to swim to the surface, but found that she couldn't move. She looked down and, through the murky water, saw that she was tied up. She felt a burn in her lungs begin as she struggled to get out of the ropes, and began to feel light headed as well. The water was ice cold because it was winter and she began to feel heavy and sleepy. Black spots began to swarm in front of her eyes and her movements became sluggish and slow.

Angel pulled to a stop at the crime scene and swore loudly when he didn't see Buffy. He leapt out of his car and ran for the docks to see if she was there. He peered down the docks and turned to leave when he didn't see her. But then, something caught his eye. A small pile of ashes lying on the dock he was standing on. Thanking God that the wind had settled down for the moment, he shed his coat and dove in, praying that he could find Buffy before it was too late.

Angel had dove in the water just a minute after Buffy had been thrown in. He swam as fast as he could toward the bottom and soon enough saw the end of a rope caught in between two large rocks. He tugged it free and followed it to the other end. At the other end he found Buffy. She was unconscious and didn't appear to be alive. He grabbed her and shot to the surface.

Once on the surface, Angel swam with Buffy as a dead weight in his arms to the edge of the docks. He hefted them up and then began CPR on Buffy. Tense minutes that seemed like hours later, she took her first gasping breath and spit up a lungful of water. She opened her eyes and continued coughing until her lungs were empty of the water she had breathed in.

"How did you find me?" were the first words out of Buffy's mouth when she could talk.

"Mostly luck. I saw some ashes and figured you'd been dumped in the ocean and then I found the end of the rope, it had gotten caught in between some rocks and I followed it to you."

"How did you know I'd been attacked?"

"Well, it's a long story. But the cliff notes version is this: the victim is Tracy King. She's the daughter of a mob boss I put away back in San Diego. Well, she had sworn to get back at me for putting her father away before I moved here. So, a rival family found out about the plot and wanted to put a stop to it. They were grateful because I put Clark in prison before he could bring down the DiAngelo family. So they sent someone to kill her. But they weren't supposed to rape her. I'm guessing they sent him back here to clean up the mess before we found out about it. Since you were here, you became another loose end to tie up."

"Well, they didn't do a very good job."

"They would've if I'd been thirty seconds later. I nearly got you killed Buffy."

"No you didn't. They did."

"Who was it who came and attacked you?"

"Big guy. Smoked a cigar, wore expensive suits. He was bald and had on alligator skin boots."

"That would be Frankie. He's their usual hit man. I've never been able to get enough evidence to put him away before. Now though, with you being an eye witness, we should be able to do it."

"Won't they try to kill me though?"

"I won't let anything happen to you Buffy. I swear." Angel promised, cupping her cheek in one of his hands. She smiled at him slowly and tried to keep tears from welling up in her eyes. The situation and the fear of nearly becoming fish food was starting to get to her and she began shaking. Angel grabbed her by her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. "Hey, you're okay. Calm down. There's nothing going to happen to you now, okay? So just calm down."

"I'm sorry, I think I'm just a little emotional right now."

"And that's completely understandable. But I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." Angel said, lifting her chin with one finger. Suddenly her green eyes met his chocolate brown ones and she was captivated. Slowly he began leaning forward until their mouths touched hesitantly. He pulled back and, finding that she wasn't hitting him or violently objecting, he leaned back in to kiss her again, for a little longer. She hesitantly kissed back and after a moment, pulled away for a millisecond to get a breath before their mouths crashed together and they began kissing wildly. He parted her lips with his tongue and hers surged forward to meet him. They kissed until their lungs burned for oxygen, then parted only long enough to get a breath. She pushed him back until they were laying on the dock, Buffy on top of him, and their mouths fused together. Finally, after several wild minutes, they parted for more than a moment and Buffy allowed him to sit up.

"What just happened there?" Buffy asked, pulling her soaked jacket tighter around her.

"Well, we just kissed."

"I know that. But why?"

"I'm not really sure. It just seemed like the thing to do. Are you always this questioning?"

"It's my job to ask questions. And I really want to know why you did that."

"Because I wanted to. Okay?" and with that, Angel leaned in to kiss her again.

I'll update soon, I promise! For now, review, review, review!