Part 4:

Deputy Mayor Allan Finch did not particularly care for his current circumstances. Not that they appeared to be all that terrible to the naked eye, no. In fact he was certain that quite a few people would consider a chocolate factory a rather nice place to spend time in, especially one filled to the rafters. Allan was not among them, though, and it had nothing to do with his diet plan.

"Everything is going according to plan?" he asked the man standing next to him, trying to hide his nervousness. This was the first time his boss had sent him out on his own to take care of something and Allan did not want to mess it up. Not only because the Mayor would certainly find interesting ways to express his dissatisfaction, but mostly.

"Production is ahead of schedule," his companion answered. " Distribution is up to you, of course. Assuming nothing goes wrong there we should have quite a nice bit of chaos come nightfall."

"And the effects are temporary?"

"As you insisted, yes. To tell you the truth I was a bit disappointed with that part of the contract, but ..."

His voice trailed off and he darted forward, quickly snatching a chocolate bar out of the hand of a worker about to take a bite.

"Believe me," he told the man, "you do not want to eat this, mate!"

The worker just nodded, not particularly inclined to argue. Allan could sympathize. There was just something about this man called Ethan Rayne that made his skin crawl.

Not as bad as the Mayor did, but still ...

#

"I think that was the last of it," Willow announced happily, counting the dollar bills she had gathered.

"I think you ripped us off," Buffy said, nibbling on the chocolate bar Willow had sold her. "You're supposed to be my best friend. The least you could have done was give me one for free."

Willow just shrugged and leaned back against her boyfriend, the two of them happily snuggling on the couch in Angel and Buffy's apartment. It was their last stop on the selling spree Snyder's evil plan had sent them on, as they had all planned to meet up here anyway.

"Big group patrol still on for tonight?" Willow looked around at the other people present.

Buffy and Angel were cuddled together in the big loveseat they had bought after Buffy had moved in, feeding each other pieces of the chocolate bars. Faith was sitting cross-legged on the floor, munching some chocolate of her own. It was Giles' chocolate, actually, but she had told him in no uncertain terms that part of his duties as her legal guardian would be supplying her with ample amounts of sugar-based food, so he might as well start now.

Rounding out the circle was Cordelia, who made use of the remaining couch space. The brunette girl had really grown into a the group during their absence, Angel thought. He remembered her being every bit the outsider he himself had been, only helping out now and then, but never accepted into the inner ranks of the Scooby Gang.

These days, though, she was part of the group and she and Willow actually seemed able to stay quite civil with each other for extended periods of time, another thing he remembered having been different. Willow for her part was pretty much the same he remembered, almost perpetually happy and quirky, though she seemed to have gotten a lot closer to her boyfriend since the last time he had been part of the group. Before Angelus.

Shaking off the bad memories that threatened to spill over him he looked at the newest addition to their little family. Faith had found her place in their circle with surprising ease. Angel was glad for that, as everyone had been able to see how desperate she had been when coming to Sunnydale. Desperate to be needed, to be liked. She had been here for only a month but he already caught himself thinking of her as family now and then. Like the little sister he had lost so long ago.

"I still have trouble with this concept sometimes," Cordelia said to no one in particular. "Patrolling for vampires and demons as a fun after-school activity." She shuddered.

"Definitely beats selling band candy for Snyder," Oz offered.

"Do we even have a band at school?" Buffy asked. "My memories of the last two school years might be ancient history, but I think I would remember hearing a school band."

"I think they played at that football game you missed because you were out hunting Spike and Drusilla."

Buffy frowned for a moment, but could not quite grasp the memory in question.

"If you say so. Anyway, big group patrol still on for tonight. Bronzing afterwards. Lots of dancing and snuggling."

She directed that last part at Angel, who gave an exaggerated sigh at learning he was supposed to dance tonight.

"Slow dancing," he whispered to her.

"Spoilsport," she whispered back.

"I ... uh," Willow began, her fingers nervously folding and refolding the bills, "I kinda invited Xander to join us."

Icy silence reigned for a long moment as both Buffy and Cordelia froze in mid-motion, looking at Willow with narrowed eyes. Yes, Angel thought, Xander. The one part missing from this circle, at least when one compared it to how things had been. There had been a time Angel had been jealous of Xander for his closeness to Buffy. He had respected him occasionally when the boy managed to get past his own pettiness and turned out to be a good guy after all. The day he had saved Buffy from drowning at the Master's hand. The way he had protected her in the hospital when Angelus had come to visit.

He had erased all that with his own stupidity, though, and even if Angel could not honestly blame him for his actions on the day he and Buffy had gone to Hell, he could very well blame him for his intent. And for the many screw-ups afterwards.

Willow fidgeted under the stares, but decided not to back down.

"He ... well, I mentioned it and ... he didn't ask to come along, but I ..."

Buffy finally shook her head and looked down.

"I guess it's okay, Willow. Just don't expect me to be friendly with him, okay?"

Willow nodded sadly, but added "He's sorry for what he did, Buffy."

"Yeah, so he said. Forgive me if sorry doesn't really cut it after thirty years in Hell, Will. Angel is giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he used up every bit of credit he ever had with me with those stupid stunts he pulled. You won't get more from me than tolerance."

Willow, seeing the way Buffy's eyes gleamed amber when she spoke, decided to let the topic slide for now. The only thing that could maybe smooth things out between Buffy and Xander was time, so she would just have to be patient.

Buffy jumped off Angel's lap, stuffing the last piece of the chocolate into her mouth.

"Okay, sun's gone down. Let's go kill some demons so we can get to the party part of the evening!"

They all rose, preparing to leave. Angel spent a moment admiring Buffy's enthusiasm. She was really throwing herself back into life here on Earth. It would never be the life it had been, of course. Too much had changed for that, especially themselves. He was glad to see her like this, though. Wanting to party, stuffing herself with chocolate, even her whining about finishing her education. She was an adult now, of course, in every way, but he saw flashes of the old Buffy now and then.

Despite the many things that were still not right, and there were quite a few of those, he could not help but think that life was good right now. Which did not mean too much coming from someone who had returned from Hell about six weeks ago, of course.

He just hoped he had not just jinxed things.

TO BE CONTINUED