Title: Runaway

Chapter 9: Reunions (or Long Time No See)

Disclaimer: Read Chapter 1 for disclaimer.

Author's Notes: I'm am so, so (insert more sos here) sorry about how long it's been since I last updated! I had real trouble with this chapter, so much that I took a break. Which turned out to be a very long break. I've also been working on my new website. Because of that this is a 3 chapter update. YAY!

As far as unusual things on the Hellmouth went this wasn't all that strange, but still Buffy couldn't help feeling pretty wigged. The closer she and Angel got to the high school the worse the devastation got – to the point that in places you couldn't even tell that a building had ever been there. But then, the buildings on either side it totally destroyed, the school was in perfect condition. There weren't even stains on the outside. If she didn't know better Buffy would have thought that construction had only finished a few weeks ago.

"Um, shouldn't the high school be rubble? It being on the mouth of hell and all," she asked Angel finally.

He smiled at her. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? When the Hellmouth opened everywhere was damaged, even if it was only windows broken. Except the school. It might even have looked better than before."

"Huh. That is just strange. Wait a minute . . . who the hell are they?!" Standing outside the main door were two men in army gear, each carrying guns.

"Commandos, from the Initiative."

"The, uh, the government demon hunters, right?"

"Exactly. They're very strong, and good at their job. They've all killed a lot of Hostiles."

Buffy looked at him in confusion. She was getting a strong feeling that whoever ran the Initiative had managed to get their hands on him. And this was even before she'd even met a commando. So far she was less than impressed.

Hostiles? Combats? Laser gun thingies? The whole thing screamed 'amateur' to her.

The second that Buffy and Angel made to go up the steps they were stopped by the commando guys.

"I found her wandering through town. We must have missed her in the clean up operation," Angel told them calmly. One of them nodded, and unlocked the door before motioning to enter.

"I already don't like them," muttered Buffy under her breath. She was getting really weird vibes from them. Not 'I'm a demon' vibes, but definitely 'something's off'.

"Hey, Angel. What do you mean by pretty 'strong'?"

"Professor Walsh, she's in charge of the Initiative, invented a drug for the commandos. It makes them much stronger and faster."

I guess that explains it then. Extra strong steroids doesn't sound too great to me. Still, might as well see what they can do first.

Angel led her down familiar corridors until they reached the cafeteria. Buffy barely managed to keep her mouth from dropping open. The entire room was bustling with activity. There were makeshift beds arranged in neat rows, the smell of food wafted through the room, and people wandered around chatting or collecting plates. It looked like an indoor refugee camp.

Her stomach chose that moment to rumble loudly. Buffy blushed faintly when Angel laughed. "Sorry, I haven't eaten in at least two days. Probably more."

Still smiling, definitely something he did more than he used to, Angel led her over to where everyone was being served. To Buffy's surprise as well as handing her a plate, he picked up one for himself.

The cafeteria lady gave him an extra large helping. "Been out patrolling already, have you?"

"Yeah. Everything's pretty much the same."

Okay, so not only is Angel walking in the sun and eating, he's chatting (even a little) to the cafeteria ladies. What else is different?

They ate lunch in almost silence. Buffy was much too hungry to be bothered by a little thing like talk, even to Angel. Thankfully he seemed to understand.

Angel glanced at her empty plate. Even though she had claimed to be starving Buffy had only eaten a normal sized helping.

"Do you want seconds?"

"No thanks. I'm full." It was true. To Buffy, who had been eating one or two tiny meals a day for the past year, that had been a feast. And much better food than she was now used to.

He nodded and picked up their plates, taking them to be washed. When Angel was sure that she couldn't see his face, he frowned slightly. Something was definitely not right.

"Hey! Hey, Angela!" Buffy automatically looked around at the shout. This time her jaw did drop. There, standing behind her were Liam, Alex, Jean and Sam.

"Hey, guys," she said a little weakly.

"'Hey, guys'?" asked Alex as they all took chairs. "You're not gonna tell us what you're doing here?"

"I have friends here, apart from you lot. When I heard what happened, I had to come and see if they were okay."

Sam looked at little confused. "Oh. But, how did you get past the police, Angela?"

"I didn't really have any trouble."

They talked for a little while longer until a warm, velvety (slightly confused) voice asked, "Angela?"

Just a little way off was Angel, his eyes questioning. She wondered how much of their conversation he had heard.

She had just opened her mouth to try and explain her way out of the mess when a sharp voice echoed through the cafeteria. "Buffy Anne Summers, what are you doing?!"

Oh god! Oh my god! This has to be a nightmare. In a minute I'm going to wake up, I'll be back in my cheap apartment, and I'll realize that the yogurt I ate last night had gone off.

To help herself wake up Buffy closed her eyes for a long moment before opening them again. Nothing had changed.

Her friends were still sitting around her, looking surprised, Angel was still watching her with the same questioning, slightly bemused expression on his face and her mother was walking towards them, her face red with anger. Even worse (if that was possible) was the fact that everyone else in the cafeteria had gone silent.

Buffy opened and closed her mouth several times, still looking for something to say. "Uh . . . hi, mom."

At the weak reply Joyce Summers exploded. Over the past years her misery and self hatred had slowly but surely changed into a different emotion. Pure anger. "'Hi, mom?'" she repeated. "'Hi, mom?'" She stared at her daughter in disbelief. "Is that all you can say? You've been gone for over a year, and all you can say is 'Hi, mom'?!"

Buffy flinched slightly. Her mother was going an ugly shade of purple, there was a vein throbbing in her temple and her voice had raised until the last words were shouted. All of the guilt that Buffy had been feeling for the past year - for sending Angel to Hell, for being responsible for Kendra's death and her friend's injuries and for leaving without a note - came slamming down on her like a boulder.

"Do you have any idea of the pain that you have caused? Being expelled from school! Escaping from the police! Leaving your friends in hospital! And running away from home! Do you understand how selfish you have been?!"

When she heard that last sentence something inside Buffy, something that had been wearing away for a long time, finally snapped. She wasn't going to sit there and let her mother tell her how selfish she'd been after she had given up everything she had - including Angel - for a destiny that she hadn't even wanted.

Buffy slowly rose from her chair. At that moment the differences between the two women were remarkable. Joyce Summers was still red and her entire body was shaking with a fury that radiated off her. You could see the anger in her eyes and hear it in her raised voice. Her daughter on the other hand, was a totally different matter. When she was standing, her body was totally still. Her green eyes were hard and when she finally spoke her voice was terrifyingly soft and calm. Cold.

"Selfish?" The question, asked quietly, managed to reach every corner. Each person in the room shivered as a tremor ran down their spine. This was a completely different form of anger. A deadly one.

Every tiny part of Angel's body was screaming. And they were all sending his brain the same message. Hunter! Killer! Fight! Run! Do something!

But he stayed rooted to the spot, completely unable to do anything but watch the girl who haunted his dreams.

"You think I've been selfish, mom? Well, let me tell you something. When I came home and had to go out again you told me that if I left then, not to bother coming back. I don't think that you can runaway if you've been kicked out of the house. I left even though I knew it meant I couldn't ever come back because there was something that I had to do."

Joyce looked shaken but held her ground. "It's always the same with you. You always had to go out and do something. Even when you were grounded."

"If you had actually cared about me enough to try and find out what I had to do then maybe I wouldn't always have to sneak out in the middle of the night."

"You will not speak to your mother in that tone of voice!"

"Really? Then I'll won't bother speaking to you at all."

Buffy turned on her heel and stalked out of the silent room, leaving the double doors swinging behind her.

Later he wasn't entirely sure why, but Angel ran after her as quickly as he could.

He found her in one of the old science labs, sitting at a desk with her head in her hands.

Angel gently closed the door behind him. "Hey. Are you alright?"

She looked up. "Oh. Angel."

"Are you alright," he asked again.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm, I'm fine." She smiled weakly and he slid onto the stool beside her.

"You don't look fine to me."

"Why did you even bother asking me if you weren't going to believe me?"

"Just stupid, I guess." He shrugged, looking down.

Buffy frowned, her troubles forgotten, as his tone of voice registered. Maybe something wasn't quite as great as she'd thought.

"Oh, Angel, you're not stupid. You're a sweet, wonderful, caring guy."

Angel raised his head at the incredible compliment she had just paid him. She really thought he wasn't stupid. This amazing creature thought he was wonderful!

"Wow. No, no-one's ever said that before."

"WHAT!" Buffy yelped. Angel jumped at the tone, flinching slightly. "I'm sorry." She said with a smile. "I just find that hard to believe."

"It's true. I mean I'm the weakest, worst fighter in the Initiative. All of the others are better than me. If it wasn't for Professor Walsh I probably wouldn't even still be in." Angel couldn't believe what he'd just said. He'd never admitted it to anybody before, but somehow he found himself needing to tell her. As if she could wave a magic wand and make everything better.

Buffy couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

Weak? Bad fighter? Angel! Maybe I just stepped into an alternate reality.

She had just opened her mouth to reply when the door opened.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that this room was in . . . Good god!"

There standing in the doorway his mouth open and his glasses slightly crooked was none other than Rupert Giles.

"Hey, G-Man, what's holding you up? Something wrong?" asked a male voice from behind the Watcher.

"Buffy. I, it's Buffy."

Confronted with the face of her Watcher, mentor and father figure, Buffy realized that she wasn't nearly as ready for this as she had thought.

Oh no! Help! Okay, Buffy, just remember to breath. This is gonna go even worse if you pass out. In, out. In, out.

Apparently Giles wasn't in any better state than she was. He reached up, took off his glasses, and cleaned them furiously before putting them back on.

Some things never change.

"What did you say? Giles, you okay? You're blocking the door."

As if in a daze Giles moved away from the doorway, his eyes not leaving Buffy. Xander, Willow, Cordelia, Oz, a man and a woman she didn't know walked through the door and then they all froze.

Despite the dyed hair and change of clothes there was something about Buffy that was still instantly recognizable.

Four pairs of wide eyes (and two pairs of confused ones) looked at her in amazement, there was complete silence for a moment before Willow collapsed in a heap.

~

Another cliff hanger! (Insert evil laugh here) But don't worry, just go on to the next chapter.