Title: Runaway

Chapter 13: Lies People Tell

Disclaimer: Characters (except those you don't recognize) are the property of Joss Whedon, WB, UPN and Mutant Enemy.

Author's Note: Sorry that I haven't updated for a while. My computer was broken and deleted the chapter as I'd almost finished it.

The next morning Buffy was heading down the corridors of the high school/refugee camp lost in thought. She still couldn't believe that Angel had been knocked flat on his back by a commando.

Okay, so they take super steroid thingies but that is just impossible! There is absolutely no way that -

"Angela!" That jerked her out of her thoughts. "Angela, over here!"

She looked up. There just ahead of her were Sam, Alex, Jean and Liam. It took her moment to put everything together.

Uh-oh.

"Hey, you left in such a rush yesterday that we didn't get a chance to talk to you," Jean told her.

"Yeah, and who was that lady? It looked like you knew each other."

"Duh, Alex. Would you go up to a complete stranger and yell at them?"

"Well, maybe if they ran over my cat," he said a little defensively.

Double uh-oh. She'd never thought she'd have to explain all of this. "Um, why don't we go sit down somewhere? There's, well, there's some stuff that I've not really been honest about."

Buffy wasn't entirely sure how long it took her to explain about her lying about her age and who she was, being the Slayer, sending Angel to hell and then running away to Los Angeles for the past four years.

When she finally finished her friends from LA sat and stared at her in silence.

Suddenly Liam grinned. "You're the Slayer, that is so cool. Do you get loads of super powers?"

Sam was next. "God, it must have really sucked though. Sending the guy you love to hell. And your mom was such a bitch, couldn't she see you were hurting?"

Okay, not exactly what I was expecting. They were still talking and didn't seem angry about her lying to them for the past four years. She was starting to wonder if they were insane.

Jean must have caught the look on her face. She smiled gently. "Angela. I mean Buffy, it's okay. We're not mad, I mean it's going to take some getting used to, but did you think we were just going to abandon you?" Buffy wasn't sure what she'd thought. Jean squeezed her hand. "We wouldn't, no matter what happens you're our friend. Besides, after everything you've been through I think that you deserved some time off."

"Thank you," Buffy barely spoke above a whisper.

"You're not getting off that easy," Sam told her. "We're expecting a complete tour of the Hellmouth."

"Yeah, and it better come with loads of stories."

Buffy sank gratefully into a chair. She, Willow, Sam, Jean and Cordelia had all decided to go shopping. There might not be much left on the Hellmouth but there were still some shops open.

The last few days had been like a whirlwind. Xander still hadn't spoken to her, she'd had another argument with her mom and had barely seen Giles. Oddly enough she had seen a lot of Cordelia, who had apparently reformed her bitchy ways, although the former cheerleader was still almost completely tactless. While she and Buffy were definitely not the best of friends they were getting along surprisingly well.

She'd even met Anya, the former vengeance demon, and Doyle who received visions from the Powers That Be.

Unfortunately she hadn't seen much of Angel. Still, two more days and then she'd be training with him. Buffy really wanted to find out from him exactly what him being half human meant. So far all she really knew was he could go out in the sun and ate food.

She quickly pushed down all the happy, hopeful thoughts that flooded her mind. Down, girl. He doesn't even know who you are, remember? This isn't the time to be thinking about a house with a white picket fence.

"So, do you think that's the way to go forward?"

Angel's head jerked up. "Huh?"

Anna looked at him in exasperation. "Angel, I've been talking about the demons at the Wilkinson's for the past ten minutes. You mean you haven't heard any of it."

"No, sorry. I, I was just thinking." About the blonde, green eyed girl who's haunting me. He just couldn't get her out of his head. She was always there with him and he couldn't say that he was upset about it. Though it could be a bit of a pain when he was patrolling or in Council meetings. Tomorrow night and you get to see her again. You've just got to make it until then. He didn't think he could manage.

Anna sighed. "What was the name of that guy again?"

"Frank Armstrong."

"Right. Hey, over here." The man's grave was a few meters to their left.

The young Slayer stood on one side while Angel was on the other. "Looks like this could take some time." He nodded. "So, Angel, do you think we could have coffee sometime? We could go over some strategies, you know?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him and made sure he had a good view of her.

"Sure. We could use with doing some more planning. Right now I don't think we could cope if there was a big increases of HSTs."

"Right. Well in that case it will probably take a bit longer than coffee. Maybe dinner and then you could come over to my room so we could keep planning." Angel nodded distractedly.

Anna's smile widened. Perfect. Coffee, dinner and then to her room afterwards. That was plenty of time, and she was sure that not much planning would get done.

Suddenly the ground under their feet moved as the fledgling pushed his way out of the grave. Angel grabbed the guy's shoulders and hauled him out, throwing him against a nearby headstone. Frank was up in moments and charging towards the half vampire. They smashed together and Angel fell to the floor trying to haul him off. They wrestled violently on the floor. Angel managed to smash Frank across the face with his fist but in return the vampire flipped then and his shoulder slammed into a rocked.

Angel cried out in agony as he felt the muscle give. The fledgling loomed over him with a grin and bent towards his neck. Angel tried to knock him off but each time he struggled fire weaved it's way through his shoulder. Just as the vampire was about to sink his fangs into Angel's neck he suddenly exploded into dust. Anna stood in front of him and offered a hand to help him up.

"That was a close one," she commented.

"Yeah, thanks," replied Angel, referring to the help up and the vampire.

They walked along in silence for a while before Anna suddenly spoke up. "So, what do you think of Buffy Summers?"

Angel didn't think it was suitable to say what he really thought. "I don't know her all that well." Or at least I shouldn't. So why does it feel like I do? Having been friends surely couldn't be the explanation.

"She couldn't have been a very good Vampire Slayer. And leaving the Hellmouth unguarded? I would never do that. It's probably a good thing she left. Now that she's back she'll probably just mess everything up."

Angel struggled to keep his sudden flash of temper in check. "She did look after Sunnydale for two years. And she defeated the Master."

"Please. I probably could have done that."

"She has been the Slayer for the past seven years, which means that she has a lot more experience than you."

Something about his tone must have warned Anna. She decided not to push her argument. Beside, she knew that she was right.

~

Next chapter: Buffy and Angel's training session and Buffy finds out more about the Initiative.