Sorry for the late update, but I've been superbusy with school. Promise to write more :D
Part 11
The right answers
Willow and Wesley entered the Summers home, the witch walking ahead of the ex-watcher, still furious because of their pointless travel into another dimension.
"You know, that was dangerous!" Willow started saying what was on her mind the whole trip back. "You don't just use magic like that so you can pay a visit to some glowy place to talk to smoke. And not tell me what exactly it was talking about!"
"Well, guess what? I won't tell you now either," Wesley said and the witch shot him a dirty look. The ex-watcher sighed. "I can't. It's not really my secret to tell."
"Not yours," Willow thought about it for a moment. "Joy's."
"I don't know," Wes didn't want to confirm anything that might imply the truth.
"You're such a big help," she said exasperated before going upstairs. She ran into Angel coming out of her room.
"Joy kinda fell asleep in there," Angel told her. "Think you can take the floor? I'd donate my bed, but it's just as hard."
"It's okay," Willow assured him. "So are you in on the secret?" she asked, thinking maybe she could get Angel to talk.
"What secret?" he thought pretty much all of his secrets were out of the bag.
"You know, Joy's secret," she gestured towards her room.
"Oh, that," he played it out like he knew something, thinking that she knew exactly what this 'secret' was and that if he convinced her he did too, she would accidentally mention something vital. Joy had seemed catatonic for the short period she had been awake. She hadn't answered one question, she had just stood there, crying, then she had fallen asleep and this time, he could tell, she was definitely *just* sleeping.
"Yeah. Can you believe it?" unfortunately for Angel, Willow was thinking of using the same tactic.
"Wow is the right word."
"Yeah, with that...uhm...smokey thing and, and Jacques."
"Definitely the smokey thing...and the Liam guy."
"Oh and the thing that looks like Buffy," Willow was beginning to run out of things to say.
"The thing that looks like Buffy," Angel repeated in, what seemed to Willow, suspicion and the witch wanted to bite her tongue thinking she had assumed a little too much.
"Yeah, Wesley told me about that," she quickly covered.
"Wesley," Angel got the answer he had been looking for. "Well I think I'm gonna go...sleep."
"Yeah, me too. Good night," she said, telling herself it was wiser to abandon the conversation for now.
"Good night," Angel said and as soon as the redhead closed the door behind herself he went downstairs. Wesley was rummaging through the living room drawers in search of pillows or blankets, anything he could sleep on.
"Sure, everyone gets a bed except good old Wesley. He can bloody well sleep in the gutter or better on the front porch," he mumbled to himself, annoyed that he didn't have luck finding anything. He was thinking about dragging the slayer out of bed to help him.
"Wesley," Angel startled him.
"Don't do that," Wesley had been too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice the vampire entering the living room.
"What's Joy's secret?" he asked forwardly.
"Joy's secret?" Wesley was exasperated. What was it now? Common knowledge?
"Yeah, the one you know. The one Willow knows," Angel was determined to find out that night what it was all about.
"The one Willow..." Wesley began chuckling. He was suddenly hit by a pillow.
"Some people are trying to sleep!" Connor complained. "Like it wasn't enough he was mumbling to himself for the last ten minutes!"
"Well, at least now I have what to sleep on," Wesley smiled satisfied before passing into the kitchen, pillow in hand. Connor looked after him, annoyed. Then, sighing, he took his father's pillow from the floor and went back to sleep.
"So were you planning on sharing this important secret with me?" Angel asked the ex-watcher.
"There is no secret," he assured him. "Willow's a little suspicious and thinks everything's some big mystery. It's not."
"I really don't think Willow overreacts," the witch was one of the most rational people he knew.
"We did this spell to get into a dimension. I wanted to try and locate Joy's brother and...,"
"The ghola?" Angel interrupted him.
"Yes. And there was this...guide that was a little strange. That's why Willow got so suspicious all of a sudden. She just didn't know the details," Wesley was trying to find a plausible excuse.
"The smokey thing?" Angel asked and Wesley was surprised Willow had told him this much and wondered how much more she had shared with the vampire.
"Right," Wesley confirmed it. "So it..."
"Wesley, there is no ghola. She was lying. She even admitted it," he told him.
"So she told you? Thank god! I was starting to run out of ideas," Wesley misunderstood him.
"Actually she didn't tell me anything," Angel said and the ex-watcher cursed himself for letting his mouth get the best of him.
"Angel, look, I can't tell you anything. You can say she *chained* me to a bed before she told me," Wesley said and Angel gave him an odd look. "Not like that! All I can say is that it's nothing bad. Nothing you should worry about."
"If it's so harmless why is everyone being so secretive about it?" Angel was still a little doubtful.
"Trust me, it's something you'd want to be kept a secret."
"I'll wait till morning then," he headed for the living room, with Wesley close behind. He looked down at his pillow in Connor's arms and smirked.
"Think you can help me find some blankets?" Wesley asked.
"You take my bed. Joy's sleeping in Willow's room so I'll go sleep next to Cordy," Angel offered his place.
"Think he'll stab me while I sleep? I did steal his pillow," the ex-watcher looked down at the sleeping Connor.
"Think of it this way, if I'm still breathing - well, you know what I mean - you have a decent shot at waking up intact," he patted him on the shoulder before heading upstairs.
He opened the door to Dawn's room slowly, trying not to make any noise, to not disturb the sleeping Cordelia. He was surprised to find Dawn sleeping next to her. He wondered what exactly had happened. A smile suddenly crossed his lips as he left the room and entered Buffy's. The slayer was in her bed, apparently sleeping.
"Is this you being jealous?" he asked amused. Buffy didn't answer him. "C'mon I know you're not sleeping, I can hear your breathing, it's not regular."
"Not everything in this world revolves around you, you know," the slayer told him without opening her eyes.
"So you were planning on sleeping with Wesley?" Angel didn't buy it.
"Actually hoping I'd have the bed all for myself," Buffy assured him, half opening her eyes. "But I guess that's not gonna happen."
"Oh, I can take the floor, don't worry," he said closing the door.
"Fine," Buffy threw him a pillow. Angel caught it before it hit him and sat down on the floor, next to the bed.
"God, this feels like year one all over again. Except now I already know you're a vampire and don't keep a journal of embarrassing thoughts no one should ever read," Buffy noticed.
"At least last time I got a blanket," Angel added. "Then again back then I was the guy you had a crush on, not the annoying ex that comes into town every year or so to screw things up somehow."
"Was that an actual confession?" Buffy turned to look down at him.
"I admit it," he smiled. "I'm as guilty as sin."
"Sin never looked so good," she returned the smile.
"Sin never had a teenage son with a formally dead ex-vampire revamped," he noted.
"True," she sighed: "So are you gonna come up here or are you going to mope all night on the floor?" he didn't answer her immediately. "You know, if you'll think about it so much, there won't be a night left," she gestured towards the window with her head.
"Why don't you call in sick?" he suggested standing up.
"I've been known to catch pretty bad colds. It is flu season after all," she moved away so he could sit down next to her.
"So why did Dawn go in the other room?" he asked out of curiosity.
"She complained that I kick and scream in my sleep," Buffy said. "Apparently she winded up on the floor more than once."
"Wouldn't be new to me," Angel smiled. "Maybe I should hold you, just to make sure I don't get hurt."
"Sneakiness never suited you," Buffy said smiling, resting her head on his shoulder and letting him put his arms around her anyway. They fell asleep that way and didn't wake up until late the next day. Buffy didn't move an inch.
In the morning, the house was deadly quiet for that particular hour since this was the time when everyone was having breakfast before going off to school or their job. That's why it seemed awfully strange to Xander Harris when he entered the house.
"Hello? Anyone home?" he walked in the living room and saw Wesley sleeping on the floor. Willow had mentioned his arrival when they had talked on the phone during the day. And of course Connor was on the couch with the pillow yanked over his ears probably trying to sleep through Wesley's continuos snoring. He went upstairs and knocked on Willow's door first. He heard movement inside and then the door opened. It was Willow of course. She had a light sleep. Surprised to see him there, Willow invited him in.
"Where is everyone?" Xander asked on a lower tone so he wouldn't wake up Joy. He noticed Willow had been sleeping on the floor.
"Everyone's here," she told him still a little sleepy.
"It's almost 8. I should be taking Dawn to school and Buffy to work. No one's awake."
"Oh, god, I think nobody remembered to set an alarm clock," she was fully awake now. "We can't have Dawn missing school."
"I'll go wake them up," Xander said and headed out of the room.
"And I'll zap together some breakfast," Willow suggested. Xander gave her an odd look. "What? It's not like I have time to cook." Xander headed towards Dawn's room. He knocked once. Twice. Not getting an answer, he went inside and was taken aback by what he saw. Buffy and Angel in the same bed. That was never something good. He considered suddenly screaming at them, but figured he wasn't going to get anything out of it but a freaked slayer and an angry vampire, which, again, wasn't something good. He decided for a more peaceful approach. Hey, at least they had clothes on, that was a good sign. He neared the sleeping Buffy and gently tried to shake her awake. The slayer, still very much asleep tried to push him away.
"Buffy, you have to go to work," he told her and Buffy finally seemed to wake up.
"No work. Flu," she mumbled, turning her back to Xander while snuggling back in Angel's arms.
"Buffy..." he tried again, but suddenly found Angel's hand around his neck. The vampire was obviously still sleeping, but had reached out to the 'attacker' out of instinct.
"Xander," Buffy opened her eyes a little annoyed. "I'm not going to work. Tell Dawn to tell principal Wood some flu story, okay?"
"All right, but could you..." he gestured towards Angel's hand.
"Oh," Buffy reached out and unclenched Angel's hand from around his neck. The vampire wrapped his now free hand around the slayer's shoulder. "Bye-bye," she mumbled before falling back asleep. Xander looked at them, having mixed feelings about leaving them alone again. God knows what they would do when they'd be awake! But he decided Buffy was a big girl and knew she definitely wouldn't appreciate him meddling in her private life - he had done enough of that until now. He left the room.
Downstairs, Willow was busy making breakfast at superspeed using her magic when Dawn entered the kitchen.
"You came home pretty late last night," Dawn said while the witch laid a stack of pancakes in front of her.
"Yeah, me and Wesley had some magic-y business to take care of," Willow told her.
"You missed the whole thing!" Dawn bit into a pancake.
"There was a thing?" Willow rose an eyebrow. "Buffy and Angel or you and Connor?" she smiled devilishly.
"Willow!" Dawn reminded her Connor was in the next room and could very well hear her. "Besides he is *so* into Cordy. Who'd blame him?"
"Wow, wasn't Angel the one who..." Willow remembered Buffy and Angel's previous argument.
"Oh, him too. A little weird I know," she said when she noticed Willow was a little surprised. "But I was talking about Buffy and Angel. Dishes were broken, there was screaming and making out..."
"Hmm, why don't I find that strange?" the witch wondered.
"On the good side, Buffy's sleeping with Angel now," Xander entered the kitchen and sighed.
"Now they're having sex?!" Dawn misunderstood.
"No, no, I meant that literally. They're just sleeping. Sex would be bad," Xander explained.
"Definitely bad," Willow agreed with him.
"Oh and Buffy said you should make up a flu story for principal Wood," he sat down at the table and started munching on some pancakes.
"Another one?" Dawn was exasperated. "It's like every other week or so she has a totally new disease."
"You have to understand sometimes it's hard for her to wake up in the morning after a night of slaying. Can you imagine sleeping only 4 or 5 hours/night?" Willow reminded her. The slayer's little sister didn't bother to answer. She still thought it was unfair she had to lie for her.
Later that day, hearing movement in the other room, Angel woke up. Joy was awake. He stood up, trying not to wake up the sleeping slayer. She looked so sweet. He kissed her on the forehead. Buffy protested a little, knowing he was leaving, but didn't bother to wake up, she only mumbled something before falling back into her slumber. Angel smiled before exiting the room. He caught Joy right when she was about to go downstairs.
"We need to talk," Angel told her, determined to not delay the conversation any further.
"Fine," Joy thought it was about time the vampire got some explanations before he started getting ideas and assuming the wrong things. "But can we go downstairs? I'm a little hungry. How about I talk and you make me a very late breakfast?" Not waiting for an answer she went downstairs. Angel looked after her for a brief moment before following her. The vampire thought he had to wake up Connor and send him upstairs to get some privacy, but found his son's bed empty. He frowned. He could guess where he was. There was no point in bothering Wesley as he seemed to already know everything.
"So what are we eating?" she asked him when he entered the kitchen.
"Depends on what we're talking about," he said moving towards the stove.
"Serious talk deserves serious food, don't you agree?" Joy smiled. The idea of having to tell Angel her secret didn't seem as frustrating as it seemed the other night. Actually she was quite relieved she was forced to do it. Her father would certainly object, but she was left without a second choice. The most important thing was that her mother not find out. For now, the slayer was clueless and much too worried about Angel's presence to bother to think about anything else. But the rest unfortunately weren't the same. Willow was more than suspicious and Connor probably knew more than he let on, but didn't really care about the outcome of the situation. All he cared for was Cordelia who much too preoccupied with trying to reestablish some connection with the world, ignored the bizarre presence she represented. Come to think of it, probably everybody seemed bizarre to her.
She looked up at the vampire. Never had she been more aware of his resemblance with his grandson than now. She just hoped she wouldn't develop some weird attraction to him because of it. It would be just too disturbing. She shook off the thought.
"How does scrambled eggs sound?" he asked.
"Delicious," she smiled again. After a pause she added: "So what do you know?"
"That pretty much everything you told me till now is a lie," Angel said from behind the refrigerator door. "Well, I think at least your name is real. And there's somebody named Jacques somehow involved in everything, but I have absolutely no idea who that is. Most likely he's the "brother" you've been talking about."
Looking at him, Joy marveled at how easy she could have invented another story based on his own assumptions, but held back the urge.
"He's not my brother," she said.
"Surprise, surprise," he let out as he prepared her eggs.
"He's a friend. But to cut over the nauseatingly long details, I'll give you the short story: I'm from the future. I came here to stop something from happening. Something very very bad."
"Is something going to happen to Buffy?" he stopped to look her in the eyes, dead serious.
"Not now. In the future I come from," she explained.
"What's gonna happen that you can stop now?" he asked. Joy sighed.
"Look, all I can tell you is that if Buffy and Spike stay together there's going to be drastic consequences," she eventually told him.
"What? Mutant vampire children from Mars?" he scowled.
"Ha ha, very funny," Joy frowned. "I'm serious."
"If that's true, you need me here because..." it only took him a few moments to realize what her plan was and let out: "Oh."
"At least until Spike leaves," it was a lie. Knowing the truth, her father would leave at her request, but she wasn't satisfied with preventing the horrid future, she wanted her mother to be happy. And she knew the only man, besides her father, who could make her happy was Angel. She also couldn't risk her father meeting up with his mother in the near future and maybe, in her absence, forget the horrible things that might happen because of their union and restart their relationship.
"We can't..." he started, a little shocked by the revelation. He had to admit to himself that he had expected such a reply though.
"Can't is overrated," she said with a knowing smile. Angel didn't want to know what she meant by it.
"So that's it? That's the big secret?" she nodded. "Why do I think you got the better end of this deal?" he asked putting a plate of eggs in front of her.
"Oh and Angel, do me a favor, don't tell Buffy," she said before starting to eat. He stared at her for a while, but she didn't seem to be bothered by it.
"I'm going back to sleep," he said heading upstairs. Actually he needed some time to clear his thoughts.
"Why didn't you tell him the truth?" Wesley, who had listened to the whole conversation, asked. Joy had been aware that he hadn't been sleeping, but Angel had been too preoccupied with her to notice.
"Are you kidding? Tell Angel?" she scowled. "He's such a bloody hero he wouldn't let me die because it's wrong."
"And you thought I wouldn't?" Wesley stood up and came into the kitchen.
"You have a different scale of values," she explained. "You know one person is not worth the lives of billions."
"You think she can do that much damage?" Wesley was a little surprised.
"She could have," she looked down at her plate, suddenly feeling she had lost her appetite. Wesley was about to ask what she meant by that when she said: "She's dead now. I don't have an excuse anymore. I tried to play the hero, but now it's all out in the open. I'm just a selfish little brat that doesn't want her parents to die. This way, maybe they'll be apart, but they'll be alive. "
"Joy...Think of the people you're saving too. You said your mother killed the slayers of your time...and now that I know the truth all those people that died in LA will live and...and maybe somehow I'll even save Fred from becoming what she was when she died. Think of Liam and Celeste having their parents all their lives. Think of Angel and all the good he'll he able to do if he lives. You're not selfish," he tried to convince her, but his words only brought tears to her eyes. She imagined Liam being alive and not being able to be happy for it. She forced herself to regain her calm.
"I don't think it's fair. Why should I be any different from anybody else whose parents died?" she asked playing with the food in her plate.
"Because you're not anybody. Your life was anything but ordinary the same as your parents. You're doing a brave thing, Joy, not many people would be willing to sacrifice themselves for others. You probably got that from your mother," he smiled. "And there are even fewer that would allow themselves to disappear into nothingness."
"You're anythin' but ordinary, Joycie," a familiar voice told her from behind Wesley. Her face lit up with hope.
"Jacques?" she saw the cajun smiling at her.
"That's what my moma call me," he replied and the ex-watcher looked around trying to spot the apparition.
"Your moma'd call you a lot of things," she smiled back, her gloom suddenly lifting.
"Is Jacques here?" Wesley asked passing his hand in front of him and right through the cajun.
"Yeah, you just put your hand through his skull," she said and Wes immediately retrieved his hand.
"Sorry," Wes apologized. "I'll just go sleep and let you catch up with...uhm, your friend."
"You all right?" Jacques asked after Wes left.
"As good as you can be when you know your mother just died. But I'm holding my own," she said with a sad smile. "How are you?"
"Been a while since ya asked," he sighed and then added: "Been a while since I needed someone to ask."
"Well?" she suddenly noticed how tired he seemed.
"Good, I guess. I ain't proud of what moma went and done, but I know she had no choice. Bad times, bad things," he hesitated.
"You wanna ask me if I don't want to give it all up, right?" she read his mind.
"I can't ask ya to give up cause everythin's all right for me now," he said.
"But you wanna," she understood him. "I promise you something, Jacques, whatever I change, I'll make sure nothing does for you."
"I hope ya can, Joycie, but whatever happens...don't ya forget Jacques loves you," he told her before fading away.
"Joycie loves you too, Jacques," she sighed and returned to eating her, by now cold, scrambled eggs.
Upstairs in the slayer's room, Angel held Buffy in his arms, not being able to fall asleep again. He kept thinking and thinking about horrible things that might happen to her in the future. Those were his nightmares, his worst fears that had haunted his thoughts across the years. And those fears had become reality one day when she had killed herself in order to save the world. He looked down at her, how adorable she was, and just the thought of her being hurt made him mad. Sensing his sudden restlessness, Buffy stirred awake.
"What's wrong?" she asked sleepily.
"Nothing's wrong," he tried to assure her, but she wasn't buying it.
"You look like your dog just died," she said and then quickly added: "Oh god, did something happen in LA with the rest of your crew?"
"No," he shook his head. "I had a nightmare. I thought you died." Buffy chuckled.
"You shouldn't get so angsty about it. It's a been there, done that situation for me," she reminded him.
"Yeah and every time it's worse," he admitted.
"For some reason I don't think this world wants me to die, so don't worry," she tried to calm him. "I'm not going anywhere."
"I wish I could believe that," he looked down at her again.
"Believe it," she rose up to his level. "Or do you want me to show you just how alive I am?" she gave him a playful smile and in a moment he had flashes of all the things her words implied.
"Wish I could take you up on that."
"What happened to safe as houses?" she asked straddling his waist. She leaned down and kissed him. "See, no hands," she smiled before continuing to kiss him. Angel returned her kisses and tried to put aside his worries.
End Part 11
Part 11
The right answers
Willow and Wesley entered the Summers home, the witch walking ahead of the ex-watcher, still furious because of their pointless travel into another dimension.
"You know, that was dangerous!" Willow started saying what was on her mind the whole trip back. "You don't just use magic like that so you can pay a visit to some glowy place to talk to smoke. And not tell me what exactly it was talking about!"
"Well, guess what? I won't tell you now either," Wesley said and the witch shot him a dirty look. The ex-watcher sighed. "I can't. It's not really my secret to tell."
"Not yours," Willow thought about it for a moment. "Joy's."
"I don't know," Wes didn't want to confirm anything that might imply the truth.
"You're such a big help," she said exasperated before going upstairs. She ran into Angel coming out of her room.
"Joy kinda fell asleep in there," Angel told her. "Think you can take the floor? I'd donate my bed, but it's just as hard."
"It's okay," Willow assured him. "So are you in on the secret?" she asked, thinking maybe she could get Angel to talk.
"What secret?" he thought pretty much all of his secrets were out of the bag.
"You know, Joy's secret," she gestured towards her room.
"Oh, that," he played it out like he knew something, thinking that she knew exactly what this 'secret' was and that if he convinced her he did too, she would accidentally mention something vital. Joy had seemed catatonic for the short period she had been awake. She hadn't answered one question, she had just stood there, crying, then she had fallen asleep and this time, he could tell, she was definitely *just* sleeping.
"Yeah. Can you believe it?" unfortunately for Angel, Willow was thinking of using the same tactic.
"Wow is the right word."
"Yeah, with that...uhm...smokey thing and, and Jacques."
"Definitely the smokey thing...and the Liam guy."
"Oh and the thing that looks like Buffy," Willow was beginning to run out of things to say.
"The thing that looks like Buffy," Angel repeated in, what seemed to Willow, suspicion and the witch wanted to bite her tongue thinking she had assumed a little too much.
"Yeah, Wesley told me about that," she quickly covered.
"Wesley," Angel got the answer he had been looking for. "Well I think I'm gonna go...sleep."
"Yeah, me too. Good night," she said, telling herself it was wiser to abandon the conversation for now.
"Good night," Angel said and as soon as the redhead closed the door behind herself he went downstairs. Wesley was rummaging through the living room drawers in search of pillows or blankets, anything he could sleep on.
"Sure, everyone gets a bed except good old Wesley. He can bloody well sleep in the gutter or better on the front porch," he mumbled to himself, annoyed that he didn't have luck finding anything. He was thinking about dragging the slayer out of bed to help him.
"Wesley," Angel startled him.
"Don't do that," Wesley had been too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice the vampire entering the living room.
"What's Joy's secret?" he asked forwardly.
"Joy's secret?" Wesley was exasperated. What was it now? Common knowledge?
"Yeah, the one you know. The one Willow knows," Angel was determined to find out that night what it was all about.
"The one Willow..." Wesley began chuckling. He was suddenly hit by a pillow.
"Some people are trying to sleep!" Connor complained. "Like it wasn't enough he was mumbling to himself for the last ten minutes!"
"Well, at least now I have what to sleep on," Wesley smiled satisfied before passing into the kitchen, pillow in hand. Connor looked after him, annoyed. Then, sighing, he took his father's pillow from the floor and went back to sleep.
"So were you planning on sharing this important secret with me?" Angel asked the ex-watcher.
"There is no secret," he assured him. "Willow's a little suspicious and thinks everything's some big mystery. It's not."
"I really don't think Willow overreacts," the witch was one of the most rational people he knew.
"We did this spell to get into a dimension. I wanted to try and locate Joy's brother and...,"
"The ghola?" Angel interrupted him.
"Yes. And there was this...guide that was a little strange. That's why Willow got so suspicious all of a sudden. She just didn't know the details," Wesley was trying to find a plausible excuse.
"The smokey thing?" Angel asked and Wesley was surprised Willow had told him this much and wondered how much more she had shared with the vampire.
"Right," Wesley confirmed it. "So it..."
"Wesley, there is no ghola. She was lying. She even admitted it," he told him.
"So she told you? Thank god! I was starting to run out of ideas," Wesley misunderstood him.
"Actually she didn't tell me anything," Angel said and the ex-watcher cursed himself for letting his mouth get the best of him.
"Angel, look, I can't tell you anything. You can say she *chained* me to a bed before she told me," Wesley said and Angel gave him an odd look. "Not like that! All I can say is that it's nothing bad. Nothing you should worry about."
"If it's so harmless why is everyone being so secretive about it?" Angel was still a little doubtful.
"Trust me, it's something you'd want to be kept a secret."
"I'll wait till morning then," he headed for the living room, with Wesley close behind. He looked down at his pillow in Connor's arms and smirked.
"Think you can help me find some blankets?" Wesley asked.
"You take my bed. Joy's sleeping in Willow's room so I'll go sleep next to Cordy," Angel offered his place.
"Think he'll stab me while I sleep? I did steal his pillow," the ex-watcher looked down at the sleeping Connor.
"Think of it this way, if I'm still breathing - well, you know what I mean - you have a decent shot at waking up intact," he patted him on the shoulder before heading upstairs.
He opened the door to Dawn's room slowly, trying not to make any noise, to not disturb the sleeping Cordelia. He was surprised to find Dawn sleeping next to her. He wondered what exactly had happened. A smile suddenly crossed his lips as he left the room and entered Buffy's. The slayer was in her bed, apparently sleeping.
"Is this you being jealous?" he asked amused. Buffy didn't answer him. "C'mon I know you're not sleeping, I can hear your breathing, it's not regular."
"Not everything in this world revolves around you, you know," the slayer told him without opening her eyes.
"So you were planning on sleeping with Wesley?" Angel didn't buy it.
"Actually hoping I'd have the bed all for myself," Buffy assured him, half opening her eyes. "But I guess that's not gonna happen."
"Oh, I can take the floor, don't worry," he said closing the door.
"Fine," Buffy threw him a pillow. Angel caught it before it hit him and sat down on the floor, next to the bed.
"God, this feels like year one all over again. Except now I already know you're a vampire and don't keep a journal of embarrassing thoughts no one should ever read," Buffy noticed.
"At least last time I got a blanket," Angel added. "Then again back then I was the guy you had a crush on, not the annoying ex that comes into town every year or so to screw things up somehow."
"Was that an actual confession?" Buffy turned to look down at him.
"I admit it," he smiled. "I'm as guilty as sin."
"Sin never looked so good," she returned the smile.
"Sin never had a teenage son with a formally dead ex-vampire revamped," he noted.
"True," she sighed: "So are you gonna come up here or are you going to mope all night on the floor?" he didn't answer her immediately. "You know, if you'll think about it so much, there won't be a night left," she gestured towards the window with her head.
"Why don't you call in sick?" he suggested standing up.
"I've been known to catch pretty bad colds. It is flu season after all," she moved away so he could sit down next to her.
"So why did Dawn go in the other room?" he asked out of curiosity.
"She complained that I kick and scream in my sleep," Buffy said. "Apparently she winded up on the floor more than once."
"Wouldn't be new to me," Angel smiled. "Maybe I should hold you, just to make sure I don't get hurt."
"Sneakiness never suited you," Buffy said smiling, resting her head on his shoulder and letting him put his arms around her anyway. They fell asleep that way and didn't wake up until late the next day. Buffy didn't move an inch.
In the morning, the house was deadly quiet for that particular hour since this was the time when everyone was having breakfast before going off to school or their job. That's why it seemed awfully strange to Xander Harris when he entered the house.
"Hello? Anyone home?" he walked in the living room and saw Wesley sleeping on the floor. Willow had mentioned his arrival when they had talked on the phone during the day. And of course Connor was on the couch with the pillow yanked over his ears probably trying to sleep through Wesley's continuos snoring. He went upstairs and knocked on Willow's door first. He heard movement inside and then the door opened. It was Willow of course. She had a light sleep. Surprised to see him there, Willow invited him in.
"Where is everyone?" Xander asked on a lower tone so he wouldn't wake up Joy. He noticed Willow had been sleeping on the floor.
"Everyone's here," she told him still a little sleepy.
"It's almost 8. I should be taking Dawn to school and Buffy to work. No one's awake."
"Oh, god, I think nobody remembered to set an alarm clock," she was fully awake now. "We can't have Dawn missing school."
"I'll go wake them up," Xander said and headed out of the room.
"And I'll zap together some breakfast," Willow suggested. Xander gave her an odd look. "What? It's not like I have time to cook." Xander headed towards Dawn's room. He knocked once. Twice. Not getting an answer, he went inside and was taken aback by what he saw. Buffy and Angel in the same bed. That was never something good. He considered suddenly screaming at them, but figured he wasn't going to get anything out of it but a freaked slayer and an angry vampire, which, again, wasn't something good. He decided for a more peaceful approach. Hey, at least they had clothes on, that was a good sign. He neared the sleeping Buffy and gently tried to shake her awake. The slayer, still very much asleep tried to push him away.
"Buffy, you have to go to work," he told her and Buffy finally seemed to wake up.
"No work. Flu," she mumbled, turning her back to Xander while snuggling back in Angel's arms.
"Buffy..." he tried again, but suddenly found Angel's hand around his neck. The vampire was obviously still sleeping, but had reached out to the 'attacker' out of instinct.
"Xander," Buffy opened her eyes a little annoyed. "I'm not going to work. Tell Dawn to tell principal Wood some flu story, okay?"
"All right, but could you..." he gestured towards Angel's hand.
"Oh," Buffy reached out and unclenched Angel's hand from around his neck. The vampire wrapped his now free hand around the slayer's shoulder. "Bye-bye," she mumbled before falling back asleep. Xander looked at them, having mixed feelings about leaving them alone again. God knows what they would do when they'd be awake! But he decided Buffy was a big girl and knew she definitely wouldn't appreciate him meddling in her private life - he had done enough of that until now. He left the room.
Downstairs, Willow was busy making breakfast at superspeed using her magic when Dawn entered the kitchen.
"You came home pretty late last night," Dawn said while the witch laid a stack of pancakes in front of her.
"Yeah, me and Wesley had some magic-y business to take care of," Willow told her.
"You missed the whole thing!" Dawn bit into a pancake.
"There was a thing?" Willow rose an eyebrow. "Buffy and Angel or you and Connor?" she smiled devilishly.
"Willow!" Dawn reminded her Connor was in the next room and could very well hear her. "Besides he is *so* into Cordy. Who'd blame him?"
"Wow, wasn't Angel the one who..." Willow remembered Buffy and Angel's previous argument.
"Oh, him too. A little weird I know," she said when she noticed Willow was a little surprised. "But I was talking about Buffy and Angel. Dishes were broken, there was screaming and making out..."
"Hmm, why don't I find that strange?" the witch wondered.
"On the good side, Buffy's sleeping with Angel now," Xander entered the kitchen and sighed.
"Now they're having sex?!" Dawn misunderstood.
"No, no, I meant that literally. They're just sleeping. Sex would be bad," Xander explained.
"Definitely bad," Willow agreed with him.
"Oh and Buffy said you should make up a flu story for principal Wood," he sat down at the table and started munching on some pancakes.
"Another one?" Dawn was exasperated. "It's like every other week or so she has a totally new disease."
"You have to understand sometimes it's hard for her to wake up in the morning after a night of slaying. Can you imagine sleeping only 4 or 5 hours/night?" Willow reminded her. The slayer's little sister didn't bother to answer. She still thought it was unfair she had to lie for her.
Later that day, hearing movement in the other room, Angel woke up. Joy was awake. He stood up, trying not to wake up the sleeping slayer. She looked so sweet. He kissed her on the forehead. Buffy protested a little, knowing he was leaving, but didn't bother to wake up, she only mumbled something before falling back into her slumber. Angel smiled before exiting the room. He caught Joy right when she was about to go downstairs.
"We need to talk," Angel told her, determined to not delay the conversation any further.
"Fine," Joy thought it was about time the vampire got some explanations before he started getting ideas and assuming the wrong things. "But can we go downstairs? I'm a little hungry. How about I talk and you make me a very late breakfast?" Not waiting for an answer she went downstairs. Angel looked after her for a brief moment before following her. The vampire thought he had to wake up Connor and send him upstairs to get some privacy, but found his son's bed empty. He frowned. He could guess where he was. There was no point in bothering Wesley as he seemed to already know everything.
"So what are we eating?" she asked him when he entered the kitchen.
"Depends on what we're talking about," he said moving towards the stove.
"Serious talk deserves serious food, don't you agree?" Joy smiled. The idea of having to tell Angel her secret didn't seem as frustrating as it seemed the other night. Actually she was quite relieved she was forced to do it. Her father would certainly object, but she was left without a second choice. The most important thing was that her mother not find out. For now, the slayer was clueless and much too worried about Angel's presence to bother to think about anything else. But the rest unfortunately weren't the same. Willow was more than suspicious and Connor probably knew more than he let on, but didn't really care about the outcome of the situation. All he cared for was Cordelia who much too preoccupied with trying to reestablish some connection with the world, ignored the bizarre presence she represented. Come to think of it, probably everybody seemed bizarre to her.
She looked up at the vampire. Never had she been more aware of his resemblance with his grandson than now. She just hoped she wouldn't develop some weird attraction to him because of it. It would be just too disturbing. She shook off the thought.
"How does scrambled eggs sound?" he asked.
"Delicious," she smiled again. After a pause she added: "So what do you know?"
"That pretty much everything you told me till now is a lie," Angel said from behind the refrigerator door. "Well, I think at least your name is real. And there's somebody named Jacques somehow involved in everything, but I have absolutely no idea who that is. Most likely he's the "brother" you've been talking about."
Looking at him, Joy marveled at how easy she could have invented another story based on his own assumptions, but held back the urge.
"He's not my brother," she said.
"Surprise, surprise," he let out as he prepared her eggs.
"He's a friend. But to cut over the nauseatingly long details, I'll give you the short story: I'm from the future. I came here to stop something from happening. Something very very bad."
"Is something going to happen to Buffy?" he stopped to look her in the eyes, dead serious.
"Not now. In the future I come from," she explained.
"What's gonna happen that you can stop now?" he asked. Joy sighed.
"Look, all I can tell you is that if Buffy and Spike stay together there's going to be drastic consequences," she eventually told him.
"What? Mutant vampire children from Mars?" he scowled.
"Ha ha, very funny," Joy frowned. "I'm serious."
"If that's true, you need me here because..." it only took him a few moments to realize what her plan was and let out: "Oh."
"At least until Spike leaves," it was a lie. Knowing the truth, her father would leave at her request, but she wasn't satisfied with preventing the horrid future, she wanted her mother to be happy. And she knew the only man, besides her father, who could make her happy was Angel. She also couldn't risk her father meeting up with his mother in the near future and maybe, in her absence, forget the horrible things that might happen because of their union and restart their relationship.
"We can't..." he started, a little shocked by the revelation. He had to admit to himself that he had expected such a reply though.
"Can't is overrated," she said with a knowing smile. Angel didn't want to know what she meant by it.
"So that's it? That's the big secret?" she nodded. "Why do I think you got the better end of this deal?" he asked putting a plate of eggs in front of her.
"Oh and Angel, do me a favor, don't tell Buffy," she said before starting to eat. He stared at her for a while, but she didn't seem to be bothered by it.
"I'm going back to sleep," he said heading upstairs. Actually he needed some time to clear his thoughts.
"Why didn't you tell him the truth?" Wesley, who had listened to the whole conversation, asked. Joy had been aware that he hadn't been sleeping, but Angel had been too preoccupied with her to notice.
"Are you kidding? Tell Angel?" she scowled. "He's such a bloody hero he wouldn't let me die because it's wrong."
"And you thought I wouldn't?" Wesley stood up and came into the kitchen.
"You have a different scale of values," she explained. "You know one person is not worth the lives of billions."
"You think she can do that much damage?" Wesley was a little surprised.
"She could have," she looked down at her plate, suddenly feeling she had lost her appetite. Wesley was about to ask what she meant by that when she said: "She's dead now. I don't have an excuse anymore. I tried to play the hero, but now it's all out in the open. I'm just a selfish little brat that doesn't want her parents to die. This way, maybe they'll be apart, but they'll be alive. "
"Joy...Think of the people you're saving too. You said your mother killed the slayers of your time...and now that I know the truth all those people that died in LA will live and...and maybe somehow I'll even save Fred from becoming what she was when she died. Think of Liam and Celeste having their parents all their lives. Think of Angel and all the good he'll he able to do if he lives. You're not selfish," he tried to convince her, but his words only brought tears to her eyes. She imagined Liam being alive and not being able to be happy for it. She forced herself to regain her calm.
"I don't think it's fair. Why should I be any different from anybody else whose parents died?" she asked playing with the food in her plate.
"Because you're not anybody. Your life was anything but ordinary the same as your parents. You're doing a brave thing, Joy, not many people would be willing to sacrifice themselves for others. You probably got that from your mother," he smiled. "And there are even fewer that would allow themselves to disappear into nothingness."
"You're anythin' but ordinary, Joycie," a familiar voice told her from behind Wesley. Her face lit up with hope.
"Jacques?" she saw the cajun smiling at her.
"That's what my moma call me," he replied and the ex-watcher looked around trying to spot the apparition.
"Your moma'd call you a lot of things," she smiled back, her gloom suddenly lifting.
"Is Jacques here?" Wesley asked passing his hand in front of him and right through the cajun.
"Yeah, you just put your hand through his skull," she said and Wes immediately retrieved his hand.
"Sorry," Wes apologized. "I'll just go sleep and let you catch up with...uhm, your friend."
"You all right?" Jacques asked after Wes left.
"As good as you can be when you know your mother just died. But I'm holding my own," she said with a sad smile. "How are you?"
"Been a while since ya asked," he sighed and then added: "Been a while since I needed someone to ask."
"Well?" she suddenly noticed how tired he seemed.
"Good, I guess. I ain't proud of what moma went and done, but I know she had no choice. Bad times, bad things," he hesitated.
"You wanna ask me if I don't want to give it all up, right?" she read his mind.
"I can't ask ya to give up cause everythin's all right for me now," he said.
"But you wanna," she understood him. "I promise you something, Jacques, whatever I change, I'll make sure nothing does for you."
"I hope ya can, Joycie, but whatever happens...don't ya forget Jacques loves you," he told her before fading away.
"Joycie loves you too, Jacques," she sighed and returned to eating her, by now cold, scrambled eggs.
Upstairs in the slayer's room, Angel held Buffy in his arms, not being able to fall asleep again. He kept thinking and thinking about horrible things that might happen to her in the future. Those were his nightmares, his worst fears that had haunted his thoughts across the years. And those fears had become reality one day when she had killed herself in order to save the world. He looked down at her, how adorable she was, and just the thought of her being hurt made him mad. Sensing his sudden restlessness, Buffy stirred awake.
"What's wrong?" she asked sleepily.
"Nothing's wrong," he tried to assure her, but she wasn't buying it.
"You look like your dog just died," she said and then quickly added: "Oh god, did something happen in LA with the rest of your crew?"
"No," he shook his head. "I had a nightmare. I thought you died." Buffy chuckled.
"You shouldn't get so angsty about it. It's a been there, done that situation for me," she reminded him.
"Yeah and every time it's worse," he admitted.
"For some reason I don't think this world wants me to die, so don't worry," she tried to calm him. "I'm not going anywhere."
"I wish I could believe that," he looked down at her again.
"Believe it," she rose up to his level. "Or do you want me to show you just how alive I am?" she gave him a playful smile and in a moment he had flashes of all the things her words implied.
"Wish I could take you up on that."
"What happened to safe as houses?" she asked straddling his waist. She leaned down and kissed him. "See, no hands," she smiled before continuing to kiss him. Angel returned her kisses and tried to put aside his worries.
End Part 11
