Chapter Seven

Angel sat shellshocked on the bed. His grip on reality was rapidly slipping, and he was not sure he wanted to stop it. He was not even meant to be here. This was not his world. This world belonged to the "Angel" out there who was yelling at Buffy, the one who had abandoned her to go off to LA. How could things have come to this? How could that stupid, arrogant imbecile dare talk to Buffy in such a way, when it she who had given him reason to fight? And how could he have left her to Spike? Nothing made sense to him anymore.

What galled him more than anything though, was the barely disguised hurt he heard in Buffy's voice. She still loved that Angel. The thought made him sick. How could she still want that poor excuse when he would do anything for her? He would never leave her like that idiot had.

Now he heard that monster tell Buffy that she would have to give her "play thing" back because Wolfram and Hart had been casting spells. He had jointly smarted and celebrated as he had heard the loud thwack of her hand connecting with the other Angel's face, and glad it had not been him on the receiving end.

Then it was quiet, a shocked silence he had surmised. Then the strained voice of Buffy had ordered his double to go downstairs and wait. He had heard subdued footsteps descending the stairs, then the door to Buffy's room was gently opened.

Buffy smiled at him, desperately trying to cover the tears she wanted to cry. He looked up at her, not knowing what to say, or how to apologise for his double's behaviour.

"I'm sorry," he finally mumbled.

Buffy shook her head and snuffled. "What for?"

"For him," he stuttered, ashamed.

Buffy put her arm around his shoulders, and snuggled into him. "That's nothing to do with you. You didn't say any of those things."

Angel looked at her closely. "But I did!" he countered. "He is *me* in this world. He's what I become."

"No," Buffy remonstrated angrily. "He's not you, and you'll never become him. He's not Angel. I don't even know him anymore."

"But it doesn't change the fact that I'm not meant to be here," Angel reminded her gently.

They were both silent for a few moments as they considered the enormity of the situation. Buffy sieved through the options in her head, desperately trying to come up with an answer. She had planned to help Angel rehabilitate and then start a new life with him in Sunnydale, without informing his old team in LA. That was before she had discovered that there were two Angels, and the one in LA was not at all pleased at her ideas. She urgently needed help.

"I'm just going to make a call," Buffy told Angel.

"Who to?" Angel asked her.

"Willow," she answered, as she dialled the number to the Sanctuary.

**********************

Dawn sat huddled up on the floor, staring at the stony-faced Angel. The last time she had seen him had been back while Buffy had been in her first year of college. He had been totally stalking Buffy, following her around Sunnydale to make sure she was okay. Well, that was his lame excuse anyway. Buffy had been mad about that, and had stormed up to LA to give Angel a piece of her mind. Dawn had not gotten to hear that part, since she had been stuck at her dad's, but she knew it had not gone well by the brooding look Buffy had worn all the rest of their visit to LA.

"So, Angel, how are things?" Dawn asked brightly, wanting to break the awkward silence.

"Okay," he answered gruffly, looking down at his hands. "And you?"

Dawn nodded energetically. "Y'know, really good. I'm in High School now and Buffy's dropped out of college. But she's good…"

"So I see," Angel commented dryly, the anger simmering in his eyes again.

"I'm sure there's a good explanation for that," Dawn quickly added.

"Isn't there always with Buffy?" Cordelia retorted cattily.

Dawn glared at the seer, outraged at her bitchiness.

"So, Cordy, what's with the hair? Did you dip it in a bottle of bleach or do the Powers That Be like you better that way?" Dawn asked in mock interest.

Fred looked around in alarm at the rising tension, and racked her brain for a way to diffuse it. "So Dawn, did Angel tell you Lorne had his own karaoke bar in LA?" she asked chirpily.

**********************

Spike had been walking the sewers all night. So far he had turned up very little but blind annoyance at the lack of esteem the demons of Sunnydale now held him in. But Spike if nothing else was doggedly optimistic and was no where near ready to give up yet. He had one more demon on his list.

"Clem, long time, no see," Spike said.

The wrinkly demon smiled up at Spike brightly, then clapped his arms around him in a brotherly hug.

"Hey Spike, how've you been?" Clem greeted.

Spike shrugged Clem off good-naturedly. "Not bad, mate. Where are you calling home these days?"

"Got myself a little place up near Crawford Street, it's nothing much…" Clem babbled, slightly nervously.

"Sounds nice," Spike enthused. "See the thing is, I need to find out some information for a lady."

"Oh, the slayer?" Clem enquired. "I didn't realise you two were still an item."

"We're not," Spike barked. At seeing Clem's alarmed reaction, Spike quickly backtracked. "Look, I'm sorry. Bit of a sore subject."

Clem shrugged his shoulders. "It's okay."

"I'll level with you," Spike offered. "The slayer's fella has got himself in a pickle. Bit of amnesia or something. You heard anything about it?"

Clem looked flustered. "Well, it might not be anything…" Clem began.

"Yeah?" Spike prompted.

"I heard these guys in Willy's Place talking about some guy named Angel. Never heard of him," Clem explained.

"Okay," Spike said to himself. "This is more like it."

**********************

Lilah smiled seductively at the robed demon before her. "So, would you like a drink?"

"What do you want?" It spat at her vehemently.

Lilah flicked her hair, straightening herself up. "Some answers," she responded. "You performed the spell, it went wrong. Why?"

It stood up, looking at her disgust. "We're done. No more answers."

It stopped in its tracks as it felt the cold metal of a knife slice against its throat. "Your poison, I believe," Lilah posed conversationally, as she signalled for the Madrith demon to tighten its grip on the robed demon's throat.

"Okay," the robed demon rasped. "I'll tell you what you need to know."

"Good," Lilah praised. "I knew we'd come to some agreement."

**********************

Buffy still had not come down. He had been sitting in Buffy's lounge for the last hour having to listen to Fred and Lorne's endless prattle and the fire of snipes being exchanged between Cordy and Dawn. All the time Angel had been becoming more wound up, thinking about what Buffy could be doing up there with his "twin".

"I'm going up there," Angel suddenly announced.

"No, Angel," Cordy insisted. "You'll just get your nose punched out of joint for interfering."

Dawn smirked at Cordy. "Well, good for Buffy."

Before anyone could stop him, Angel had bounded up the stairs and was knocking on Buffy's door.

"Buffy, come out," he ordered. "We need to talk."

"Go away, Angel," Buffy called from inside.

"Come on, Buffy, open up," he demanded.

Suddenly the door opened and Angel was face to face with himself.

"Hey, I - uh - need to talk with Buffy," Angel told the other Angel. He took a step back as the other Angel openly glowered at him.

"Well, she doesn't want to talk to you," the other Angel growled.

"I don't care what you say, I'm speaking to Buffy," Angel responded a little heatedly.

He made to walk forward, but before he could even make a move, the other Angel had him pinned to the floor. "Gone soft, huh boy?" the other Angel taunted. "How dare you come near *my* girl and start ripping her heart out again? I'll kill you before you touch her!"

"Angel - Angels - no!" Buffy yelled, as she flew to separate them.

As the other Angel went to throttle his double, Angel nutted him, then threw him across Buffy's room. The other Angel was soon up, launching himself at Angel. They punched each other savagely, as Buffy tried to pull them apart. For all her strength, the Angels were driven by a primeval anger founded on jealously.

Suddenly both Angels were thrown violently to opposite sides of the room. Both of them looked up dazed as a small girl walked into the room. "Hey Angels, I heard you needed my help."

"Willow," Buffy said. She rushed over to her friend, and threw her arms around her. "Thanks for getting here so quickly."

Willow looked at her friend awkwardly. "I wasn't sure you'd want me back."

"We always wanted you back, Will," Buffy reassured her. "This is your home."

"Buffy..." Willow cried, as her knees buckled beneath her. Buffy rushed over to her and guided her friend to a chair.

"Will, what's wrong?" Buffy questioned.

"I'm weak, not used to practising magic," Willow explained. "I wasn't sure I could."

"Thanks for doing this for me," Buffy told her. "I know this is hard for you."

Willow grasped her friend's hand and looked across at the two Angels. "Tell me what I can do."

|| Next ||

Feedback please?