Chapter 20: Am I cursed?

Title: Reunion time.

Author: Nikka

Author notes: Hi everyone, If you need to know about summary, rate and all the rest it's all in chapter 1 I'll just remind you that English is not my native tongue so you may find some spelling & grammar mistakes, you're more then welcome to let me know about them but remember you may find them while you read the story. Have fun.

Disclaimer: Angel & Buffy's characters are not my creation (wish they were) they belong to Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. Other characters that are not familiar from the show do belong to me.

Author's remark: My chapters as of ch 12 will no longer be reproof by Sigma due to the fact that I have no internet and I'm asking someone else to post the remaining chapters for me. I want to take this opportunity and thank sigma for all the help. And I hope you will continue reading my story even without the excellent work sigma has done. Thank you again sigma for all your great work.

He lay on the sofa she leaned against him while he played with her hair.

"Don't cut it any more." He said.

"My hair?" she asked.

"Yeah I like it long or longer then is." He explained.

"Trying to make me look like your ex?" She asked while raised her head to look at him.

"Well I didn't ask you to dye your hair blond did I?" he said looking back at her with a smile.

"Why you…" she set up and started to tickle him and he did the same. They were too busy playing they didn't hear the door open or saw Buffy come in.

She stood there staring at them not believing her eyesight. Angel was tickling Cordelia? He was laughing? He never did that with her. All he did was brood and fight, he never tickled her, he rarely smiled and she never saw him laugh, at least not out loud like this. 'It's me, I'm the one who's cursed' she thought to herself. She was so stunned she didn't even notice that her bag fell from her hand and on to the floor, the thump noise finally got they're attention.

"Buffy." Angel said as he and Cordy got up embarrassed.

"I'm sorry I interrupted you." She said trying to hold back the tears, but it was too late. She stood there tears running down her cheek.

"Buffy are you…?" Angel asked as he came close to her.

"I'm fine." she cut him off and ran up the stairs.

"Great now what? I thought she was okay with that, with us?" Cordy asked not really expecting an answer.

"I never actually talked to her about this, I mean we talked and she said she understood and gave her blessing, but maybe I should have let her know first, you know?" He turned to Cordy.

"No I don't know." She got angry.

"Cor?" Angel was surprised by her reaction.

"What Cor? I know she had it rough, I know she's fragile, I know you were her greatest love, God I know all of that." Angel cut her off.

"So if you know all that what's with the attitude?" He asked.

"I just had enough." She took a big breath and set on the sofa. "She's not the only one who had it rough in life. My head nearly exploded, I face death every day, sometimes nearly my own. I have these killing visions. What can I say life sock but we all move on any way, so did she in case you forgotten. She moved on, she had a boyfriend after you a serious one, while you were still in love with her. So why do you think you owe her so much? This didn't come as a surprise to her why do I need to act like it did?" She looked at him waiting for something, anything.

"You don't, but I do, I owe her that much. You can either understand it or not but I still have do it." He said firmly.

"Fine, run to Buffy, as usual. See if she's fine, if she needs some comfort."

"Cordy…" He said trying to reason with her.

"It's fine I'm use to it. Buffy is the super hero that everyone loves and I'm the bitch from hell."

"Cordy you know that's not true." He said.

"All I know is that last night you said you loved me, you kissed me, you said I'm the only one."

"You are Cor, you are."

"And now you run after her." She got up and walked towards him.

"So how is it Angel? How is it really?" She looked at him and knew he couldn't answer her. She walked passed him opened the door.

"Cordy where are you going?" He said as she stood in the doorway.

"Outside it's a beautiful day I should make the most of it."

"Cor?" he called after but it was too late she already left.

'Great' he thought to himself as he walked up the stairs to Buffy's room.

She heard a knock on the door. She already knew who it was. "Come in Angel." She said.

"I'm sorry about my little show down stairs, I hope I didn't cause any trouble between you and Cordelia". She looked at him he had both an angry and sad expression.

"Don't worry about it, I'm more concerned about you at the moment." She smiled; she loved hearing that even if it wasn't all true.

"Like I said I'm fine, now. I just had a rough moment before, nothing to do with you." She smiled trying to hide what she really felt. She thought she caused enough trouble for one day.

"That might work with someone else, but I know you better then this. Besides, I think the fact that you cried when you saw me and Cordelia downstairs tells me I do have something to do with it." He set on the bedside next to her.

She knew he was right, she never could hide anything from him; he could always tell if there was something wrong. "You are related to it." He looked at her with a look that said 'I knew I was'. "But you're not the lead in my little freak show."

"I'm not?" he thought he had it all figured out.

"You know me Angel but we've been apart so long… too long." She said quietly not more then a whisper. "Things changed, so have I. there're things you don't know and I…" She didn't know what to say how to explain her life in the past two years. He only knew the basic stuff.

"So tell me." He cut off her thoughts.

"Tell you what exactly?" She didn't follow.

"What's changed? What happened? Why you cried?" The questions echoed in her head. "Buffy?" He called her name when she didn't answer back.

"Ha." She didn't where to begin. Was it when Railey left or when he did? Maybe it all started when she met him.

"Buffy, you keep drifting off, stay with me." He reached out and held her hand.

"I'm sorry I'm just trying to figure out when did it all start."

"What started?" He was confused.

"The curse, my curse."

"You have a curse?" He was still trying to make sense of it all.

"I must have one, if not why did they all leave me?" She didn't really expect an answer.

"Your mom?" he said very carefully trying not to hit a nerve.

"No, I understand, or at least I accept that."

"Then who are you talking abo…" he was finally starting to understand. "You mean me right?"

"Not just you. There was also Railey who left and all the guys I had first dates with and never made it to the second. They all left."

"Buffy I..." she cut him off

"I don't need your pity Angel."

"I wasn't planning on pitting you." He said.

"You didn't?" She wondered.

"No. I wanted to tell you… SO WHAT!"

"What?!" Buffy looked at him shocked.

"You heard me." He looked straight at her still holding her hand. "Buffy you're not cursed, you're just living life as they come. I admit you're the slayer and that may cause a few problems in the relationship area, but then what can I say. I can never be with the women I love, not really. I can never get married have children." Buffy looked at him funny, and he remembered Conor. "Well except this one who is special." Even he got confused explaining that. "You know what I mea. I left because I wanted you to live a normal life, because I was the one who was cursed, still am actually." She smiled. "And I don't know why soldier boy left."

"Railey." She said with a smile, Angel never really liked him.

"Whatever. But it doesn't matter you'll find someone else, you'll love again and maybe even have some kind of normal life." He stopped, making sure she was all right. He let go of her hand. "Does any of it make sense to you?"

"Yeah it does, in a wired way it does." She smiled at him this time she wasn't hiding anything.

"Buffy did something happened today that brought it all up?" But then again maybe she was hiding something.

"I had a talk with someone who draw me a picture I didn't want to see." Angel was intrigued, he wondered who the mystery person was but decided not to push.

"Well who ever it was he was wrong." He said with a smile as he got up.

"Who said it was a 'he'." She smiled back.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, you better go do some damage control."

"You knew something was wrong?" Angel asked surprised.

"You're not the only one who can read people." He smiled and walked out leaving her to her thoughts.

They heard a noise coming from the back. "What was that?" Anya asked worriedly.

"I'll go check." Giles said as he took a stake in his hand.

Anya was smiling to one of the costumers who was browsing and seemed frightened. "Can I help you?" Anya asked with a smile and approached the woman. The woman quickly put the statue down and headed for the exit mumbling 'no thank you'. "Great!" Anya got angry. "Who ever it was he better be worth losing this costumer." She said to Wesley who paid little attention.

Giles came in followed by Angel and put the stake away. "All is well." He said to Anya who seemed irritated.

The shop was empty now, after all it was noon on a Monday most people were at work or school, so Anya didn't have much to do and all the British talk between Giles and Wesley drove her mad.

"Angel, did something happened?" She rushed over hoping he has something important to tell Wesley or Giles to make one of them leave, both would be even better.

"No, I'm looking for Cordelia have you seen her?" He asked as he looked around the shop.

"Oh, she's not here. She was here and then she left." Anya explained.

"Did she say where she was going?" He asked.

"No." Anya said and walked away.

"Wes, did she tell you something?" Wesley who was so preoccupied with a book didn't even notice that Angel was there. "Wes!" Angel raised his voice.

"What? I'm… Angel where did you come from." Wesley was surprised to see him.

"I asked if Cordy told you where she might be?" Angel just asked the question and skipped the explanation.

"She came by asked where Gunn, Fred and the rest went. I told her they said they might go to the park or the zoo, I wasn't really sure. Then she took the phone called them, and arranged to meet them… and before you ask I have no idea where, she didn't say."

"So you don't know where they might be?" Angel tried again.

Wesley closed the book and looked at Angel. "No, but I'm sure they'll be back soon."

"And you say that because…?" Angel asked.

"Because we said we'll all go to lunch together and it's almost 13:00 and knowing Gunn he must be starving by now." Wesley who saw the smile on Angel face lowered his head and returned to the book.

"Okay then, all I have to do is wait." He looked around. Both Giles and Wesley were inside the books and Anya was counting the money. "Yep, just wait patiently, just wait."

"And be quiet at the same time." Giles snapped at him.

"And quiet." Angel nodded his head and hopped they'll come back soon cause he was so bored.

"That was so much fun, we really should do this again." Fred said as they all walked through the door.

"Have a nice time?" Angel asked.

"Angel, what are you doing here Cordy said you were busy." Fred was surprised to see him.

"I was but I'm done now." Cordelia who walked in so him and the smile on her face changed to an angry expression. "So how's my boy?" Angel went to look at Conor in the pram.

"Sweet as a button. Lorne answered. "And sleeping so we better not disturb him." He added when he noticed that Angel was about to wake him.

"Of course not." Angel said and backed away.

"So are we still going to lunch?" Gunn asked anxiously.

"Wes are you ready?" Fred asked.

"Sure, let's go." He answered.

"Actually guys I think I'll take little Connie here back to the house. We both can use a nice long nap." Lorne said.

"Don't call my son in a girl's name." Angel said.

"For your information Connie is also a boy's name." Lorne remarked. Angel stared at him. "Then again, you're the dad."

"Are you sure?" Gunn asked Lorne.

"Yes, we'll have a nice walk back to the house and then some well needed rest." He looked at Cordelia. "Princess?" She looked at him. "Do you have the keys?"

"Sorry I left in a hurry and left them at the house." She answered and gave Angel an angry look.

"Well then I think we have a problem." Lorne said.

"No you don't." Giles said. "I have a spare key." Giles gave the key to Lorne.

"And besides Lorne I think Buffy is home." Angel said and looked at Cordy who still seemed angry.

"Okay then let's go. Angel, are you coming?" Gunn asked.

"No and I Cordy will stay here too." He looked at her." there's something we need to talk about."

"No there's not. I'm going to out to lunch." Cordelia snapped back.

"Cor, stop acting like a five years old." Angel answered back.

"I'm the five years old? I'm the five years old? Maybe you're the five… well 100 years old." Everyone looked at her confused.

"Cor I need to explain, if you just…"

"No explanations needed." She cut him off. "I've seen this before remember, I used to live here." Now everyone got curious and no one left. Gunn even forgot about his hunger.

"That's not like that, you know me and Buffy would never…" When Giles and Anya heard Buffy's name they got curious too.

"You would never what? Sleep together? Well we can only hope."

"Cordelia you're taking an innocent moment and turning it to something else." Angel tried to reason with her.

"I don't think so, I think for the first time I see thing exactly as they are." Suddenly Cordelia started to shake. Angel ran to her and grabbed her. The rest of the A.I. ran to her.

"Cordy? Cordelia can you hear me?" She didn't answer him she couldn't stop shaking her eyes were half closed and she couldn't stop shaking.

"We have to help her." Fred called out.

"Help who?" Buffy who just walked in asked.

"It's Cordelia." And as Giles said that the shacking stopped and Cordelia was unconsciousness.