Alright…let's get all kinds of complicated shall we?  *grins*  This is still NOT B/A on this thread.  BUT, I have written three chaps that ARE B/A cos…well, it worked nicely to have some B/A stuff.  It ends all fluffily and I won't be continuing that story unless I get heaps bored and find myself feeling oddly motivated, which probably won't happen.  If you do go and read the B/A stuff, please please PLEASE come back and keep reading even if you don't lack the lack of shippiness!! 

http://www.angelfire.com/ks3/schoolies/btvs/itb33angel_ba.html

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: ANGEL (II)

Saturday: 3pm

5th September 1998

California: Los Angeles

Buffy, Giles, Ethan and Faith walked into the building that housed Donngel Investigations, each of them looking around curiously.  Doyle, seated at his desk, with his feet on the table looking extremely bored, jumped to his feet when he recognised one of the visitors.

"Hey girlie," he greeted, a smile on his face.  "This yer crew?"

"Hey Doyle," she replied, returning his smile.  "These are my friends, Faith, Ethan and Giles."

Doyle nodded his greeting to the other three.

"So…how's things?  You feeling any better?" he asked.

"Slayer healing.  It's good for pretty much anything," she replied.

"Good to hear it," he said.  "Angel should just be getting up, so you'll hafta wait a bit.  Takes him about half the hour to do his damn hair."

Buffy grinned.  She remembered Angel complaining once about his hair doing strange things while they had been locked away.  She hadn't noticed anything different about it, but when he entered the room, his hair spiked, she swallowed hard.  She had thought he was attractive when he was all rugged and ruffled from a fight.  When he was clean with his hair done properly, he was absolutely devastating.

"Buffy," the vampire greeted, a smile coming to his face.  Doyle rolled his eyes and sat back to watch the display.

The vampire and the Slayer hugged tightly, Giles watching nervously while Ethan and Faith just watched.  Buffy and Angel drew away from each other, Buffy smiling shyly.

"Guys, this is Angel," she said.  "This is Giles, my Watcher, my dad Ethan and my best friend Faith."

There was a chorus of nice to meet you's go around.  Gunn walked into the office a few moments later.  He grinned when he saw Buffy.

"Hey Buffy," he greeted.  She smiled at him but didn't offer him a hug.  He seemed slightly disheartened by that, but let it slide.

"What brings you to our offices?" Angel asked.

"I…we came to say goodbye," Buffy said.

Angel's face fell completely.  "Goodbye?  You're leaving?"

Buffy nodded.  "I'm going home.  To Sunnydale."

"Now?"

"In about ten minutes, yeah," Buffy said.  For the first time that day she actually felt sad to be leaving.  She desperately wanted to be back in Sunnydale with her mom and her sister, but leaving behind three new friends was going to be hard.

"Geez, the girl has one bad experience with being kidnapped and sold into slavery and she runs back home," Doyle teased.

Buffy couldn't help but laugh at that, thankful that someone had lightened the sombre mood.

"You'll come back though," Angel said.  "Maybe to visit or…something."

"I think I could do with some serious time on the beach," Buffy said, smiling at Gunn as she said it.  He grinned back at her, thankful to not be ignored.  "Get a tan, maybe see the beach by moonlight as well."

Doyle stepped forward, seeing that neither the vampire nor the Slayer was about to begin with the goodbyes.  He hugged Buffy briefly, the small Slayer hugging him back.

"Take care of yourself girlie," he said.  "And if you need help, you know who to call."

She nodded and squeezed his hand thankfully.

Gunn stepped forward as well.  "It's been real," he said.  "And I'm gonna make sure you keep your promise about visiting.  Even if I hafta come to wherever you live and kick your skinny white ass to get you back here."

She grinned and hugged him.  "Count on it."

Angel just looked at her before crumbling and hugging her again. 

"You better not have been kidding about the beach by moonlight," he said.

She shook her head and made a silent promise to him that she would return. 

Angel stepped back and leant against Doyle's desk casually.  Giles stepped forward and put a gentlemanly hand on Buffy's back.

"We really ought to go if we wish to beat traffic," he said.

Ethan stepped forward and put an arm around Buffy's shoulder, causing both Gunn and Angel to grimace with jealousy.

"It was nice meeting you guys," Faith called over her shoulder.  She had seen the reactions of both Gunn and Angel to the tiny blonde, and while part of her was jealous, she also couldn't blame them for their affection for the blonde girl.  She had always had something about her that made people love her.  Faith couldn't fault the two men for being drawn to something that Faith herself had been drawn to as well.

Angel could only watch as she walked away, casting a confused look over her shoulder before she rounded the corner and disappeared out of sight.  Doyle stepped towards Angel and put a brotherly hand on the vampire's shoulder.

"She's a good kid, Angel," Doyle said.

Angel just nodded.  "Yeah.  She is."

"But you're gonna get yourself in trouble walking down a path like that," Doyle reminded him.  "She's the Slayer Angel.  And you're a Vampire.  The chances of something like that working are one in a million billion trillion, you know what I'm saying?"

Angel sighed and looked away, hating when his friend was right.  That girl deserved the world and everything in it, and he couldn't even give her the daylight.  If he ended up taking a chance with her, he could ruin her life completely.  He wanted more for her than that. 

Without another word, Angel stood and went into his office, trying his hardest to keep his mind on the newest case, rather than on the blonde goddess that had just walked out of his life.

Just to clarify, cos I know it's heaps confusing!  Try me, it's been really difficult keeping up with writing it, so I dunno how yo're handling reading it.  I've just posted the B/A chaps at my site (link at top…it works, I swear!!)  If you have issues with using Angelfire, cos I got some emails about ppl not being able to view my site, email me (katters_s@hotmail.com) and I'll send you a copy of the chapters.  Hope you enjoyed either version and I would LOVE to hear from you on reviews or emails!

Toodles.

K.