See part one for notes and disclaimers.

Part Five

Buffy pulled her dress up and took off as fast as she could. She ran towards Restfield Cemetery, hoping to get as far from other people as she could. Besides, if she was lucky, she might find a good crypt that would protect her back. It was unbelievable how fast those hounds could run. Without her Slayer speed and stamina, she would be dead already; she was getting pretty damn tired as it was.

Just when she thought she couldn't run any more, the Slayer heard the most beautiful sound in the world: Angel, calling her name. Moments later, he was at her side, game face firmly in place.

Buffy was so relieved she nearly cried. "I've never been so glad to see you, Angel! If we go back to back, I think we just might make it out of here."

For the next twenty minutes or so, vampire and Slayer worked together, attacking the dogs in a deadly dance. Despite the seriousness of her situation, Buffy laughed in the pleasure of the fight. The intricate choreography that they achieved so easily proved to her once again that they were perfect for each other.

After the last hellhound was dispatched, Buffy took a good look at Angel. He was wearing a tuxedo, oddly enough. It gave him a bull in the china shop sort of look, but Buffy was deeply touched to see him wearing it. She wondered idly how much money he would lose on his deposit, for the tux was ripped and disheveled from the fight. "You were going to go to the Prom after all," she remarked tremulously.

Angel looked uncomfortable. "Well, you said you wanted to go. I thought..."

"You thought that you would give me my perfect high school moment," Buffy interrupted. "The fact that you wanted to do that for me is perfect enough. But we can't go now, with your tuxedo looking like that. Let's go to your place instead."

"Buffy, I really don't think that's a good idea. Nothing has changed between us."

Despite his words, however, Angel sounded unsure of himself. Tactics girl that she was, Buffy quickly pounced on his indecision. "Angel, if you hadn't come along, those hellhounds would have killed me. There were just too many of them, and I had no one to guard my back. I understand that you want me to have this perfect future, but Slayers almost never get any future ... perfect or otherwise. Having you around, helping me fight the forces of darkness, makes a difference. You can help to make sure that I have a future. Okay, so it's not going to be perfect. We can't make love again, and we can't go for romantic strolls on the beach, and we'll never have children ... but Angel, I won't have those things anyway if I'm dead." Buffy took a deep breath, and stared into his beautiful chocolate eyes. This was it; time to say what she should have said the previous morning. "Stay with me, Angel. Stay with me until I meet my Slayer expiration date, and see if you can't extend that date a bit. We'll go to your place now, and start to build a life together. I don't care about sex; I just want to wake up in your arms."

Angel knew that she was wrong, that *they* were wrong, but he found himself nodding anyway. Liam had been weak-willed when he was alive, and Liam's undead corpse wasn't much stronger. Of course, it didn't help that she looked beyond perfect in her prom dress. He took her home, and they spent the rest of the night cuddled together in the miserable bliss that was uniquely Buffy and Angel.

- * - * - * - * -

Buffy was at Giles' bright and early the next morning, eager to get the disgusting job of hellhound disposal out of the way so that they could get back to researching the Ascension. To her surprise, Giles was furious at her. "So kind of you to show up, Buffy. It would have been more appreciated, however, if you had shown up at your dance. I spent the entire night in a panic, worrying about your safety."

Buffy winced. "I'm sorry, Giles. My bad. I ran into Angel, and he helped me with the hellhounds. We had things to work out afterwards. I really didn't mean to wig you."

Giles wasn't appeased at all. In fact, he looked angrier. "You spent the night with Angel," he flatly deduced. "Would it have killed you to call and let me know that? You could have left a message on my machine, and I might have had a decent night's sleep for a change."

"I'm sorry," Buffy repeated sheepishly. And she was. She also felt a little scared. Behind Giles' anger was another emotion that she couldn't quite identify–disappointment, maybe? –that disturbed her. This wasn't just about failing to report in, but she didn't have a clue what else was she had done wrong. She had an uncomfortable feeling in her gut that she had screwed up with Giles again, perhaps for the last time.

Giles put a lid on his anger before the others arrived, and they all went to work on defeating the Mayor. But Buffy's gut had been correct; something had changed irrevocably between Slayer and Watcher. The atmosphere between Giles and Buffy was professional, but the old camaraderie was noticeably absent. The other Scoobies picked up on the change, but only Cordelia commented on it.

Giles had been all reserved and British from the morning after the Prom, but his passion flared to life again after Angel fed off her. When he discovered that she was still planning on spending her life with Angel in spite of the fact that he had nearly killed her, Giles totally lost it. Any chance they might have had at salvaging their relationship died that day, even though he didn't leave Sunnydale until several months later.

The Scooby gang fell apart after Giles left for England. Both Willow and Xander blamed Buffy for Giles' departure, claiming that he could take anything the Hellmouth could dish out, but being ignored in favor of Angel was just too much for him. Buffy reacted badly to their accusations ... not least because she knew they were true. After she finished her hysterical counter-attack, those two friendships were in tatters.

Over the next year, Buffy and Angel became closer and closer, largely because he was now all she had. She had no friends, had stopped talking to her mother altogether after Angel told her how Joyce had tried to break the two of them up, and never got into the college scene because she spent all of her free time with Angel. True, they didn't have that much in common other than fighting demons, but they were in love. Maybe they weren't happy, but they weren't actively unhappy all of the time ... and being in love more than made up for that fact. At least, that's what Buffy told herself when she found herself missing her mom, her friends, or her Watcher. And as for that small voice inside her that whispered that obsession and love and misery weren't really all the same thing, well, she was careful to never listen to it. She couldn't have survived Giles' absence if she had.

THE END

Well, that totally sucked. I suppose that those of you who get off on angst are in a depressive bliss right now, but what about those of us who enjoy happy endings? I wonder if things might have turned out better if Buffy had asked Giles about the anti-stain spell after all... Why don't you go to part six to find out?