Chapter Eleven

"Buffy?" Willow, half-awake, half-asleep asked. It was two ten in the morning and she knew it was Buffy.

"Yea, good guess."

"No one else would call this late. Plus, we have caller I.D." Willow said, more awake. "How was patrolling?"

Buffy sighed. She didn't want to relive that night. Angel was hurting but she was talking to Willow, one of her best friends. If anyone would try and make her feel better it was Willow. "Wil, it was terrible. Angel felt so bad and horrible about the past few months, I couldn't talk to him. He doesn't want to see anyone for a few days."

Willow thought for a moment. She had something major to tell Buffy but she couldn't. Angel was hurting and because of that Buffy was hurting. Willow would have to keep her new findings a secret a little longer.

"What was so important. Is everyone okay?" Buffy asked as she laid in her bed. She reached into the drawer in her nightstand to grab her lotion. Right next to her lotion was the Claudagh ring Angel had given her for her birthday. It made her think about Angel. She wished there was something she could do for him.

"Oh, it was really nothing that important. I just wanted to make sure we were still on for lunch with Giles tomorrow, well, today." Willow lied.

Buffy knew that Willow wanted to ask something else but she was too tired to argue. "Of course. We were going to meet around ten thirty, right?"
"Yea, I think Oz is picking you up then. Then we can start to set up in the apartment while Xander and Cordy drive Giles home. "

"Okay Wil. I'll be ready around ten thirty then. Good night Wil."

"Night Buffy." Willow told her best friend. She hung up the phone and laid back down in her bed. She wanted to share her news with Buffy. She knew it would make her feel better. Should would be ecstatic but Buffy wasn't ready to hear it yet. Buffy would know soon though.

"Is that even possible?" Oz asked Willow on the way to pick up Buffy. Willow had shared with Oz the news she had intended for Buffy.

"I don't know but I want to try. I feel like it is the least I can do for both of tem."

"When do you plan on trying this?" Oz asked as he turned down Revello Drive.

"Soon. Very soon." Willow answered as Buffy walked towards the van.

"You didn't have to pick me up. I could have taken a cab." Giles told Xander and Cordella.

"It's no problem Giles. We just wanted you to know we were there for you."

"Yea because you are British and you have no family or friends or a life." Cordy added as they walked out of her car.

"She certainly has a way with words." Giles said.

Xander wrapped his arm around Cordy. "Yea, that's why I love her." He explained.

Giles walked to his door and put his key in the lock and turned it.

"Surprise!" Willow yelled as Giles, Xander and Cordy walked though the front door. Willow gave him a quick hug.

Giles looked around. He saw bottles of water and soda on his counter in the kitchen as well as a kettle of water on in the kitchen. "What is all if this?" He asked.

"It's a welcome home party." Xander added.

"Yea. Think of it as, 'we're glad your not dead' party." Cordy added.

"Once again, Cordy has her very special way with words." Oz commented.

Giles walked over to the couch where Buffy was sitting. She was in a daze. She was thinking about Angel and about how she was going to tell Giles that he was alive. Giles would never look as Angel and Angelous as two different men. He saw them as one in the same. Buffy knew she had to tell him before she left to go home that afternoon.

"Hey, welcome home." She said as she hugged Giles.

"Thank you Buffy. How are you?"

"Me? I'm fine." Great, my mopping is shining through she thought to herself. She sat up straight, as her mother always told her to do and looked at Giles. "How are you feeling?"

"Excellent thank you. You shouldn't have done all this." Giles spoke to everyone in the room.

"Giles, it was no problem." Willow said

"Yea, it was the least we could do for you." Xander added,

"Especially since you're not dead." Cordy added again.

'There she goes again." Buffy said with a forced smile.

"Xander, it is just her special way of saying she cares." Oz explained.

Everyone made small talk for a while. Cordy continued to make inappropriate comments about Giles being well and alive and being British. Oz and Xander were there to explain and to point out every single comment that left her mouth.

Everyone knew there was something wrong with Buffy. She wasn't her usual self. They all assumed that it was because of the whole Angel thing.

Buffy sat and kept to herself. She contributed to the conversations that went on as well as laughed at the jokes that were told but she didn't feel herself. She had to tell Giles that the thing that almost killed him was alive. Angel was alive and not evil. She knew that Giles would go off the deep end and with good reason. She had to explain in the calmest and most direct way. She just didn't see the opportunity.

Buffy stood up and walked to the kitchen to put her plate in the dishwasher. She was going to empty the sink full of dishes and load the dishwasher. She was in her own little world doing so when Giles met her in the kitchen.

"Buffy, I have been meaning to talk to you about something."

"Oh? Uh? What?" She asked a little dazed.

"I wanted to ask you what exactly happened with Angel that night?"

Buffy swallowed hard. She didn't want to look Giles in the eyes. She knew that he was going to be upset and a little hurt.

"Well," she started. "I sent him to hell at first."

"At first?' Giles questioned.

"Yea. Right before I did Angel turned good but the portal had already been activated and Acathla opened. I knew there was only one way to close it." Buffy looked down at the floor. "I killed Angel."

"Oh Buffy, I-" Giles was interrupted by Buffy.

"No Giles, there is more. I was walking out of the mansion and heard a thump. Angel had returned from some hell dimension. He was good Giles. It wasn't Angelous, it was Angel."

Giles stared for a moment. He didn't know what to say. Should he be upset because the man, the beast that killed his lover and tried to kill him was alive? Was he upset because his slayer who he had begun to love as a daughter was hurt? After all, she had to send her lover to hell to save the world. It was unfair that she had to do that but it was unfair that his precious Jenny was no longer with him.

"Buffy, I am lost for words. I know I should be bloody angry but I am not. I can't imagine what you must be going through. Like many aspects of your destiny, this too is unfair."

Tears formed in Buffy's eyes. "Giles, he feels really awful for everything. I know he didn't do it. It was Angelous. He is beating himself up for everything."

He better be beating himself up over this. He almost killed me and Willow and he has killed so many. Jenny is dead because of him. How on earth is it possible to feel sorry for such a creature, such a hideous beast? Giles kept telling himself that he felt bad for him because of Buffy. Still staring at the floor, Giles said, "I bet he is," very calmly. There was no point of being Angry with Angel or Buffy at that particular moment in time. It wouldn't make him feel better and it certainly wouldn't help Buffy out.

He placed his arms around Buffy and told her everything would work out for the best.

Meanwhile, Willow discussed with Xander and Cordy what she and Oz were talking about that morning.

"Wil, are you sure this can be done?" Xander asked nearly repeating Oz's question.

"Yea, how do we know he won't die, I mean for real. As real as a vampire can really die. Xander, help me out here, you know what I mean."

Before Xander could answer, Willow cut him off. "I don't know if this can be done. I

guess it is a one shot deal but I have to try, for Buffy."

"Where did you get this information?" Cordy inquired with out making a ditzy comment.

"I found it in Ms. Calendar's things. It was stuck to some projects that needed to be graded. I translated it and poofy, here we are know talking about it." Willow explained.

"When are you going to try it?" Oz wanted to know.

"Tomorrow night. If it works, it should work instantly. Well, I think instantly we will know either way whether or not it will work."

"When do we tell Buffy?" Xander asked.

"We don't. We wait for it to work. No one tells Buffy about this. No one at all." Willow said with her serious face. "Buffy will find out soon enough."