CHAPTER FIVE: EXPLANATIONS

Fred walked back into the office and smiled gently at Gunn.  He grinned back at her, thrilled to see that he had been the first one she had looked at.  He missed how things used to be, and he could only hope that after everything with Angelus was fixed, they could work on their relationship.

"Did you get Buffy settled in?" Gunn asked.

Fred nodded.  "Did you find anything useful?" she asked.

"Yup," Gunn replied with excitement.  "Those Svea Priestess chicks live twenty five minutes from here. Pacoima."

"So…what are we waiting for?" Fred asked.

"Not a thing," Cordelia replied.  "You, Gunn and Lorne can stay here while Connor, Wesley and I check out this address."

Fred nodded and the group split in two.  Connor, Wesley and Cordelia grabbed weapons and were out the door with barely a goodbye to the remaining people.

Fred sighed tiredly and rubbed her temples.  She was starting to think that Buffy's idea of sleep was a very good one.

"You okay?" Gunn asked.

Fred looked up and nodded.  "Exhausted, but…okay otherwise.  You?"

"About the same actually," Gunn replied.

"We'll just enjoy the semi-silence until they get back I suppose," Lorne added.

Fred and Gunn nodded, thankful for the slight rest they were getting.  A soft voice started coming from the television in the lobby.  Lorne brought his hands to his ears, not wanting to hear Angelus singing anymore.  The things that Angelus had planned for his future were far too disturbing for Lorne to actually want to get a reading on.

The group moved into the lobby and stood around the monitor, watching as Angelus calmly sang while sitting in a corner.

"He's so calm," Fred commented.

"It's like he's not even in a cage," Fred added.

"In his mind, he's not," Lorne explained.  He switched the monitor off, not wanting to hear anymore of Angelus' slow and creepy songs.  "I don't know how our little Slayer upstairs managed to deal with him for six months straight."

"When was that?" Fred asked curiously.

"Well, Angel-cakes said that he lost his soul the day of Miss Cutie's seventeenth birthday.  She must be nearly twenty-two by now, so that was about five years ago," Lorne replied.

Fred looked completely amazed.  Even in the cage she was completely petrified of Angelus.  She couldn't even imagine trying to deal with a psychotic Angelus on the loose, and having to try and deal with him at the age of seventeen. 

"Poor kid.  Having to kill your first lover while your friends blamed you for setting him loose in the first place.  Not fun," Lorne commented.

"Wait, so what was that whole 'true happiness' thing that Cordy and Buffy were bitching at each other over earlier?" Gunn asked.

Lorne chuckled a little, both at Gunn's unique way of expressing the girls earlier cattiness, and the explanation that was to follow.  Lorne knew that Angel had never been really straight with Fred and Gunn over the specifics of the loophole in his curse. 

"Well, when Angel-face downstairs has a truly, perfectly happy moment, the soul goes bon voyage, and we say bonjour to Monsieur Angelus downstairs."

"And his moment of happiness was what?" Gunn asked.

Lorne just smiled and looked pointedly at Gunn.  "Well, if you can't figure that out, then I'm not gonna be the one to tell you."

Gunn stared blankly at Lorne for a moment before it finally hit him.

"Sex!" He choked out the word as though it was a foreign concept when associated with Angel.

"Got it in one lamb-chop," Lorne said.

Fred blushed a deep shade of red and cast a glance at the ceiling, contemplating the blonde girl that lay upstairs in Angel's bed.  They'd been lovers.  It wasn't that much of a revelation that they'd been together, Fred had seen Angel's reaction to Buffy's death and resurrection first-hand, and he'd been absolutely devastated.  But she'd never thought that Angel's curse could be broken by making love.

"Kinda makes you feel sorry for them though," Fred said quietly.  "They could never be together…like that."

Gunn went silent, unable to contemplate the idea of being in a relationship that was as serious as he'd always assumed Buffy and Angel to have, and to not be having sex.  It just seemed so surreal.

"How long were they together?" Gunn asked.

"On and off for three years," Lorne replied.  "Off when he was Angelus, dead and insane."

"Oh."

Fred switched the monitor back on and was met by an eerie silence.  At least Angelus had stopped singing.  She saw Angelus still in his darkened corner, sitting with his knees up around his chest, a small smile playing on his face.  She couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about.

The room descended into silence and the group sat in contemplation, hoping against hope that the information that Buffy had wrenched from Angelus would be useful.  Until the rest of their group came back, all they could do was sit and wait.

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Wesley, Connor and Cordelia came through the front door, bruised, bloodied and generally looking disheartened.  Gunn, Fred, and Lorne turned to them anxiously, all holding their breaths in wait.

"What happened?" Gunn asked, looking over their collection of injuries.

"Vamps," Connor replied succinctly.

"You didn't get the Svea?" Fred asked.

"No, the Beast did. Slaughtered the entire family," Wesley explained.

Gunn, Fred and Lorne seemed to completely deflate.  Their shot at banishing the Beast forever had been destroyed. 

"Guess he found a way to kill them after all," Fred said softly.

"So much for our big priestess rescue," Gunn added.

"Are we sure Angelus doesn't know anything more? I mean, maybe we should talk to-"

"No," Wesley said, cutting Fred off mid-sentence.  "I think he's told us everything he's going to."


Wesley didn't want Angelus lose for any longer than was absolutely necessary.  With Angel out of commission and the Beast still on the loose, it made everything too risky.  They needed their Champion back.

"Which means our last-ditch plan, turning Angel into a soulless monster, it's a bust. If Angelus can't help us-"

"It's time to bring back Angel," Cordelia finished for Gunn.

Connor frowned and walked away, unable to believe that they were serious about restoring Angelus' soul to him after everything he had done.  The team from AI watched him walk away, wondering if Connor would ever accept Angel as his father.

"Oh, and he's usually so chatty," Lorne said, sweetly sarcastic.

"Rough night," Cordelia explained, glancing at Connor's retreating back.

Wesley fell easily into the roll of leader.  He knew what needed to be done.

"We'll need the shaman."

But first, they needed his soul out of the safe.  He left the group and walked into the office that he had long ago vacated.

"Uh, maybe someone should go wake up Blondie," Gunn suggested, following Wesley into the office, the rest of the team walking behind him.

"Good idea," Lorne agreed.

Cordelia scoffed at the idea.  They didn't need Buffy for anything.

"We've been doing just fine without her all these years," Cordelia said bitterly.

"Even so," Lorne said.  "She did come all this way."

"We didn't ask her to," Cordelia protested.

"But we were going to," Wesley added.

He looked at Fred, who nodded, easily reading what Wesley wanted from her.  She spared a glance at Gunn and walked up the stairs quickly, hoping that Slayers weren't horribly violent when woken up.

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Fred walked into Angel's room and stopped in shock.  Sitting beside Buffy's bed was Connor.  Buffy was asleep and Connor was just watching her, with the strangest expression that Fred had ever seen on Connor's face.

"Connor?" Fred whispered.

Connor turned around.  He'd heard Fred coming, but he hadn't wanted to relinquish his position beside the sleeping girl.

"What are you doing up here?"

"Watching her," Connor replied.

"I noticed that.  What for?"

He shrugged.  He honestly couldn't have told her why he was watching her.  He didn't understand it himself.  He just felt something towards this girl, though he wasn't able to describe what it was.

"I dunno."

Fred sighed.  She just hoped that he wasn't planning anything insidious towards Buffy.  Fred walked towards the bed and placed a hand gently on the Slayer's shoulder before quickly stepping back.  She was grateful that she did as the Slayer's eyes popped open and she shot up in bed, her fist clenched, ready for a fight.

She relaxed when she saw Connor and Fred beside her.  She stretched languidly and covered her mouth to hide a tired yawn.

"Hey.  What's wrong?"

"We're about to go to the Shaman to get him to put Angel's soul back in," Fred explained.  "We thought you'd want to be around for it."

Buffy nodded and pushed the covers of the bed away from her body.  She pulled her shoes on and followed Fred and Connor back into the downstairs office of the Hyperion Hotel where the AI team was still gathered.

Wesley nodded his greeting to the Slayer and walked silently to the safe that held Angel's soul.  He entered the combination and twisted the handle, the door swinging open.  The blood drained from his face and Wesley felt pure panic rush through his veins.  Buffy noticed Wesley's hand suddenly go white at the knuckles and she looked at him worriedly.

"Wes?"

Wesley turned and looked at the group.

"Angel's soul…it's gone."

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I know I know, it's going slow.  Takes a bit to actually get to the rest of B/A and B/Aus.  My apologies.  This whole set-up thing sucks, but sadly it doesn't work without it.  *sighs*  Thanks heaps for all your reviews!!

Toodles.

K