Title: Coming Clean
Feedback: Of course I want to know what you think otherwise I'd hide it in a folder on my computer! Kristi@allengames.com
Disclaimer: They belong to Joss. If they were mine I'd be nicer to them! At least most of the time.
Spoilers: Only if you have lived in a cave and not seen any of Angel or Buffy.
Distribution: If you want it just ask!
Author's notes:The centered offset quotes are quotes pulled from the shows. I didn't write them, I didn't think of them. Also I wanted to thank everyone who sent me feedback! This is my first fanfic and it's very inspiring! If you'd like to see more of this story let me know!
Chapter 6
The picnic was an odd mix of foods. There were French fries, string cheese, chocolate bars and extra crunch peanut butter. Angel delighted in watching Buffy eat. She was so expressive, like she was with everything else. She dipped a square of chocolate into the jar of peanut butter and held it out to him. "Want to try? I know your vamp taste buds can't really savor it, but still."
-"Why didn't you tell me about chocolate and peanut butter?"-
-"Well, I figured if your vamp taste buds couldn't really savor it, then it
would only hurt you, you know?"-
He let her feed him chocolate and peanut butter. He licked the peanut butter off her fingers and his vamp taste buds couldn't really savor it, but he remembered a time when they had.
Buffy lay back on the red and white checked blanket, her hands on her stomach. "I'm stuffed. I don't think I could eat another bite."
Angel grinned. "That's too bad. I saved the best for last." He took a small cooler from behind the tree. Buffy sat back up, instantly aware. The cooler steamed with dry ice as Angel opened it and took out a half gallon of ice cream. "The perfect yum, cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip."
Buffy squealed with delight. "This is perfect, Angel. How did you know that's my favorite flavor?"
-"Mmm, this is a dream. Your human for like a minute, and already there is
cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip in the fridge."-
Angel shrugged and tried not to let the regrets and memories show in his eyes. "It's my favorite also. I keep some in the fridge ever since,"
"Ever since what?" Buffy asked.
"Ever since I started the investigation company. It helps me think." Angel lied glibly.
Buffy looked at him a moment, eyes narrowed. Angel stuck a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and the look melted away. It was replaced by an expression of pure bliss."Mmm, this is a dream."
Angel coughed, nearly choking on ice cream. It was coincidence, nothing more. The day had never happened. There was no way she could remember it.
"You okay?" Buffy asked
"Yeah, I-just-I'm fine." Angel just gave up trying to explain.
After they'd consumed a good bit of the ice cream Buffy laid her head in Angel's lap and he read poetry to her. His cool fingers traced the lines of her face and stroked her hair as he read. She couldn't remember being this relaxed since-well since the last time she'd fallen asleep in Angel's arms, 4 years ago before he'd broken up with her, before prom, before graduation, before dying and going to heaven. She hadn't been this relaxed since her entire world fell apart.
Angel watched Buffy, reciting the poems mostly by memory. She was slowly drifting off to sleep. A sweet, sleepy dream smile graced her lips. Angel felt a twinge of guilt. He had to tell her about Spike and he was going to have to do it soon. He hated to spoil this beautiful day by making her mad or making her cry. ===============================================================
Wesley and Giles were deep in research mode. They had already drunk endless pots of tea between them. There were books upon books piled up on the table in front of them.
"Look at this passage here." Giles pointed out. "It refers to a lock and a key. I highly doubt these are literal locks and keys. It mentions the Guardian is the keeper of the lock and the key. Perhaps they are artifacts that contribute to Angel's shanshu? Perhaps a sword, as in the ritual of Acathla, or a portent." Giles shoved himself back from the table and took off his glasses. "Bloody, it could be plastic token from a cracker jack box for all I can tell."
Wesley hmmed. "Yes rather frustrating isn't it. I've got a historian looking into the history behind The Book of the Guardian. I've high hopes that he will have something for today or tomorrow."
"Yes, perhaps if we know more about the origins of this particular text will give us a direction to go while trying to sort out these cryptic passages." Giles agreed. "Until then, perhaps we could take a break. Angel mentioned something about a vault with artifacts in it."
The music at the Bronze was loud. Rubyhorse was playing and it was packed. Buffy walked through the throngs of people. Everyone wore a black suit, except her, she was dressed in torn jeans and sweater and they were covered in rich, black dirt. There was water all over the floor. A cocktail waitress walked up to her and spoke in Irish. A heavy brass key dropped from the catwalk above and landed in front of Buffy. She bent to pick it up and looked to see who had dropped the key. It was the old guardian woman who had told her about the scythe.
A persistent knocking made her turn around. She couldn't see a door and she didn't understand how she could hear knocking over the music. Someone was making French toast.
"Buffy,"
Her eyes flew open and she looked into Angel's eyes. She smiled. "Good morning. I was having the weirdest dream." She stretched and yawned. A look of urgency flitted across her face. "The dream, I've gotta tell Giles." She started to get up.
"You're not going anywhere. I made you breakfast in bed. Call him. He's staying in one of the apartments. I think it was 4687."
"Okay, I'm not going to argue with French toast, strawberries and whipped cream." She picked up the phone and gave Giles a brief summary of her dream. "The old lady who told me about the scythe, she gave me a key, big brass one. I don't think this is important but I had on torn clothing covered in dirt and everyone else was wearing a suit. The floor was covered in water. Oh! And a waitress spoke to me in Irish, I think."
"Try to remember the words and have Angel translate them for you. Perhaps I can meet you in the library in an hour or two." Giles said.
"Okay, Angel brought me breakfast but I'll be there as soon as I'm done here." Buffy said. She hung up the phone. "This is nifty having Giles and a library and Willow and you all in the same place. It's sort of like High school but a lot nicer." She took a bite of French toast. "Okay Giles wants me to see if you can translate what the waitress said in my dream. He's pretty sure it sounds like a prophecy dream related to that book. I think it's Irish. It sounded like what they were speaking in Ireland, sort of."
"Okay, I'll do what I can." Angel said.
"die-o-ha-oeen glass gan nae eo-ch-ra-cha-cha." Buffy tried to sound the words out.
Angel pressed his lips together to keep from smiling. She had just murdered the Irish language in the worst possible way. He hated to ask but, "Could you say it again? I think it's something about a lock."
"Which would make sense, because the lady gave me a key." She laboriously said the sentence again.
"Worthless lock without the key, I think." Angel said.
"Yay! Now that business is over I can get back to eating this yummy breakfast."
Angel waited until she had finished eating. "Buffy, there's something I've got to tell you and you're not going to like it." He had found it was best to be up front with Buffy from the very beginning.
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Well, it was a good way to start the day."
"I'm sorry, but this can't wait any longer. A few days after we got settled in Wolfram and Hart I got this envelope without a return address on it. I opened it and that amulet I gave you fell out, the one you wouldn't let me wear. Somehow, Spike came out of the amulet-"
"Somehow what? Spike? He burned to ash in the Hellmouth. I saw it. He turned Sunnydale into a crater. What?"
"Spike is alive. He's still a vampire. He's still got a soul. He's living here in Wolfram and Hart, and might I mention, not helping." Angel said.
"How could you not tell me?" Buffy shouted, her anger building.
"Buffy, I didn't think it was my place. I really figured Spike had already contacted you. " Angel argued.
"You could have told me anyway. You know what he did. You know what he meant to me, but then that's just it isn't it. You're still trying to make all my decisions for me. Guess what, Angel, I'm still a big girl now. You could have told me. I could have taken it. In fact I had a right to know that the man who saved my life, all my slayers lives and the life of possibly every living thing on this earth is here."
"Buffy, how the hell was I supposed to know I'd meet you in Ireland and you'd end up here?"
"Angel, this has nothing to do with meeting me or me being here. You should have told me regardless-"
"Oh give the soddin pouf a break. It's not actually his bloody fault this time." Spike said as he leaned against the open door frame of her bedroom.
"Spike, don't you knock?" Buffy said indigently.
"Good to see you to, Luv." He lit a cigarette.
Buffy stood up. "I'm sorry. It is good to see you." She hugged him fiercely. A rush of tears came to her eyes. "I didn't think I was ever going to see you again." She stepped back, doubled up her fist and slugged him in the jaw.
"Ow! Bloody hell, bitch. I save the soddin world, come back from the bloody dead and that's the thanks I get?"
"No, that's for not telling me you were alive before now." Buffy said. Angel sat back and watched.
"Been a bit chaotic 'round here, hasn't it, Peaches." Spike directed to Angel. Angel merely shrugged in answer.
"Dawnie is going to kill you herself when she finds out you didn't even write." Buffy said.
"How is the lil bit?"
"She's good. She's Giles' new prodigy." Buffy said, pride evident in her voice.
"Oh, bloody beautiful. Have they gotten matching tweed yet?" Spike asked.
Buffy ignored the comment. "Both of you, get out. I've got to get dressed and meet Giles to talk about this prophecy dream."
Angel and Spike walked silently down the hall. They stopped at the elevator. Angel cleared his throat. "Thanks for the save in there, Spike."
Spike shrugged and took a long draw on his cigarette. "Slayer loves you, God knows why. Just figure it's better for us all 'round if you and her aren't going all broody over each other."
"You're quite certain it was the same woman in your dream?" Giles asked.
"Absolutely. She dropped this heavy brass key on the floor in front of me. I picked it up."
"And then what?" Giles asked.
"Then nothing. Angel woke me up."
Giles took his glasses off and begin to clean then. "Then he, uh, Angel stayed the night then?"
"No, I didn't stay the night and before anyone asks, I'm not evil. I brought her breakfast. When she didn't answer the door I let myself in." Angel said walking into the library.
"oh, good morning then." Giles looked up, turning a couple of shades of red. He turned back to Buffy. "Perhaps we should be looking for an ancient key, an artifact of some sort." Giles reached for one of the many books piled on the table.
"I don't know, for some reason that doesn't feel right. She gave me the key, but I don't think the real key has anything to do with it." Buffy said.
Giles look perplexed. He took his glasses off again and cleaned them again. "Indeed."
"Giles, last time we dealt with keys, the key was actually a person. Any chance of that being true again?"
"I can't imagine a person being key to Angel's-"he stopped and cleared his throat. Angel glared at him. "being key to Angel's book here."
Buffy glanced at Angel, Giles and Wesley. "Why do I feel like I missed the plot line here?"
Giles cleaned his glasses again. Wes had taken his off and was currently beating a staccato on the table. Angel had his hands in his pockets and his back to Buffy.
"Ok, out with it. I know you all are keeping something from me."
There was a collective sigh. Angel stepped forward. "Three and a half years ago Wes discovered a prophecy, the Shanshu prophecies, about the vampire with a soul. It said that after a time when I, we assumed, had lived through a few apocalypses, saved the world a couple of times and so on that I would be rewarded. I would live to die. I would become human."
"Oh God," Buffy covered her mouth with her hands. Her knees went out from underneath her. Angel was quick enough to catch her before she fell. Giles and Wesley quietly excused themselves. Buffy gulped air in great huge sobs. Tears soaked through Angel's shirt and stung his skin like holy water. Tears gathered in his own eyes and burned their way down his face. He would kill anyone else who hurt Buffy like this, yet he seemed to continue to do it time and time again.
"I didn't tell you before, Buffy, because there's not a time frame on this. It might never happen in your lifetime."
She looked up at him. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes were liquid with tears. She sniffed. "Angel, do you know how many times I dreamed about you becoming human?"
-"You know, it's a good thing I didn't fantasize about you turning human
only about 10 zillion times, because today would have been a real let
down."-
"I'm sorry, Buffy. I thought it would be best not to tell you, until, if it happened. And now, with Spike. I don't know. Maybe the prophecy is meant for him." Angel said.
"Do you really think the powers would be that cruel?" Buffy asked. "Angel, this isn't just your reward, it's mine too. It makes up for the childhood I gave up, the normalness I've never had. The people I've lost. How could you not tell me? How would you feel if Wes had found out about this prophecy and then decided it would be best not to tell you, in case it didn't happen?"
Buffy stood up and wiped at her face. "I am so tired of you making decisions for me. Maybe to you, I'll always be that little girl sitting on the steps in front of Hemry High, but a lot of things have happened to me since then, a lot has happened since you moved here. It's time everyone started letting me make my own damn decisions." She shook her head and sighed. "You know what, I'm going home."
She turned and walked out the Wolfram and Hart offices.
Feedback: Of course I want to know what you think otherwise I'd hide it in a folder on my computer! Kristi@allengames.com
Disclaimer: They belong to Joss. If they were mine I'd be nicer to them! At least most of the time.
Spoilers: Only if you have lived in a cave and not seen any of Angel or Buffy.
Distribution: If you want it just ask!
Author's notes:The centered offset quotes are quotes pulled from the shows. I didn't write them, I didn't think of them. Also I wanted to thank everyone who sent me feedback! This is my first fanfic and it's very inspiring! If you'd like to see more of this story let me know!
Chapter 6
The picnic was an odd mix of foods. There were French fries, string cheese, chocolate bars and extra crunch peanut butter. Angel delighted in watching Buffy eat. She was so expressive, like she was with everything else. She dipped a square of chocolate into the jar of peanut butter and held it out to him. "Want to try? I know your vamp taste buds can't really savor it, but still."
-"Why didn't you tell me about chocolate and peanut butter?"-
-"Well, I figured if your vamp taste buds couldn't really savor it, then it
would only hurt you, you know?"-
He let her feed him chocolate and peanut butter. He licked the peanut butter off her fingers and his vamp taste buds couldn't really savor it, but he remembered a time when they had.
Buffy lay back on the red and white checked blanket, her hands on her stomach. "I'm stuffed. I don't think I could eat another bite."
Angel grinned. "That's too bad. I saved the best for last." He took a small cooler from behind the tree. Buffy sat back up, instantly aware. The cooler steamed with dry ice as Angel opened it and took out a half gallon of ice cream. "The perfect yum, cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip."
Buffy squealed with delight. "This is perfect, Angel. How did you know that's my favorite flavor?"
-"Mmm, this is a dream. Your human for like a minute, and already there is
cookie-dough-fudge-mint-chip in the fridge."-
Angel shrugged and tried not to let the regrets and memories show in his eyes. "It's my favorite also. I keep some in the fridge ever since,"
"Ever since what?" Buffy asked.
"Ever since I started the investigation company. It helps me think." Angel lied glibly.
Buffy looked at him a moment, eyes narrowed. Angel stuck a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and the look melted away. It was replaced by an expression of pure bliss."Mmm, this is a dream."
Angel coughed, nearly choking on ice cream. It was coincidence, nothing more. The day had never happened. There was no way she could remember it.
"You okay?" Buffy asked
"Yeah, I-just-I'm fine." Angel just gave up trying to explain.
After they'd consumed a good bit of the ice cream Buffy laid her head in Angel's lap and he read poetry to her. His cool fingers traced the lines of her face and stroked her hair as he read. She couldn't remember being this relaxed since-well since the last time she'd fallen asleep in Angel's arms, 4 years ago before he'd broken up with her, before prom, before graduation, before dying and going to heaven. She hadn't been this relaxed since her entire world fell apart.
Angel watched Buffy, reciting the poems mostly by memory. She was slowly drifting off to sleep. A sweet, sleepy dream smile graced her lips. Angel felt a twinge of guilt. He had to tell her about Spike and he was going to have to do it soon. He hated to spoil this beautiful day by making her mad or making her cry. ===============================================================
Wesley and Giles were deep in research mode. They had already drunk endless pots of tea between them. There were books upon books piled up on the table in front of them.
"Look at this passage here." Giles pointed out. "It refers to a lock and a key. I highly doubt these are literal locks and keys. It mentions the Guardian is the keeper of the lock and the key. Perhaps they are artifacts that contribute to Angel's shanshu? Perhaps a sword, as in the ritual of Acathla, or a portent." Giles shoved himself back from the table and took off his glasses. "Bloody, it could be plastic token from a cracker jack box for all I can tell."
Wesley hmmed. "Yes rather frustrating isn't it. I've got a historian looking into the history behind The Book of the Guardian. I've high hopes that he will have something for today or tomorrow."
"Yes, perhaps if we know more about the origins of this particular text will give us a direction to go while trying to sort out these cryptic passages." Giles agreed. "Until then, perhaps we could take a break. Angel mentioned something about a vault with artifacts in it."
The music at the Bronze was loud. Rubyhorse was playing and it was packed. Buffy walked through the throngs of people. Everyone wore a black suit, except her, she was dressed in torn jeans and sweater and they were covered in rich, black dirt. There was water all over the floor. A cocktail waitress walked up to her and spoke in Irish. A heavy brass key dropped from the catwalk above and landed in front of Buffy. She bent to pick it up and looked to see who had dropped the key. It was the old guardian woman who had told her about the scythe.
A persistent knocking made her turn around. She couldn't see a door and she didn't understand how she could hear knocking over the music. Someone was making French toast.
"Buffy,"
Her eyes flew open and she looked into Angel's eyes. She smiled. "Good morning. I was having the weirdest dream." She stretched and yawned. A look of urgency flitted across her face. "The dream, I've gotta tell Giles." She started to get up.
"You're not going anywhere. I made you breakfast in bed. Call him. He's staying in one of the apartments. I think it was 4687."
"Okay, I'm not going to argue with French toast, strawberries and whipped cream." She picked up the phone and gave Giles a brief summary of her dream. "The old lady who told me about the scythe, she gave me a key, big brass one. I don't think this is important but I had on torn clothing covered in dirt and everyone else was wearing a suit. The floor was covered in water. Oh! And a waitress spoke to me in Irish, I think."
"Try to remember the words and have Angel translate them for you. Perhaps I can meet you in the library in an hour or two." Giles said.
"Okay, Angel brought me breakfast but I'll be there as soon as I'm done here." Buffy said. She hung up the phone. "This is nifty having Giles and a library and Willow and you all in the same place. It's sort of like High school but a lot nicer." She took a bite of French toast. "Okay Giles wants me to see if you can translate what the waitress said in my dream. He's pretty sure it sounds like a prophecy dream related to that book. I think it's Irish. It sounded like what they were speaking in Ireland, sort of."
"Okay, I'll do what I can." Angel said.
"die-o-ha-oeen glass gan nae eo-ch-ra-cha-cha." Buffy tried to sound the words out.
Angel pressed his lips together to keep from smiling. She had just murdered the Irish language in the worst possible way. He hated to ask but, "Could you say it again? I think it's something about a lock."
"Which would make sense, because the lady gave me a key." She laboriously said the sentence again.
"Worthless lock without the key, I think." Angel said.
"Yay! Now that business is over I can get back to eating this yummy breakfast."
Angel waited until she had finished eating. "Buffy, there's something I've got to tell you and you're not going to like it." He had found it was best to be up front with Buffy from the very beginning.
She arched an eyebrow at him. "Well, it was a good way to start the day."
"I'm sorry, but this can't wait any longer. A few days after we got settled in Wolfram and Hart I got this envelope without a return address on it. I opened it and that amulet I gave you fell out, the one you wouldn't let me wear. Somehow, Spike came out of the amulet-"
"Somehow what? Spike? He burned to ash in the Hellmouth. I saw it. He turned Sunnydale into a crater. What?"
"Spike is alive. He's still a vampire. He's still got a soul. He's living here in Wolfram and Hart, and might I mention, not helping." Angel said.
"How could you not tell me?" Buffy shouted, her anger building.
"Buffy, I didn't think it was my place. I really figured Spike had already contacted you. " Angel argued.
"You could have told me anyway. You know what he did. You know what he meant to me, but then that's just it isn't it. You're still trying to make all my decisions for me. Guess what, Angel, I'm still a big girl now. You could have told me. I could have taken it. In fact I had a right to know that the man who saved my life, all my slayers lives and the life of possibly every living thing on this earth is here."
"Buffy, how the hell was I supposed to know I'd meet you in Ireland and you'd end up here?"
"Angel, this has nothing to do with meeting me or me being here. You should have told me regardless-"
"Oh give the soddin pouf a break. It's not actually his bloody fault this time." Spike said as he leaned against the open door frame of her bedroom.
"Spike, don't you knock?" Buffy said indigently.
"Good to see you to, Luv." He lit a cigarette.
Buffy stood up. "I'm sorry. It is good to see you." She hugged him fiercely. A rush of tears came to her eyes. "I didn't think I was ever going to see you again." She stepped back, doubled up her fist and slugged him in the jaw.
"Ow! Bloody hell, bitch. I save the soddin world, come back from the bloody dead and that's the thanks I get?"
"No, that's for not telling me you were alive before now." Buffy said. Angel sat back and watched.
"Been a bit chaotic 'round here, hasn't it, Peaches." Spike directed to Angel. Angel merely shrugged in answer.
"Dawnie is going to kill you herself when she finds out you didn't even write." Buffy said.
"How is the lil bit?"
"She's good. She's Giles' new prodigy." Buffy said, pride evident in her voice.
"Oh, bloody beautiful. Have they gotten matching tweed yet?" Spike asked.
Buffy ignored the comment. "Both of you, get out. I've got to get dressed and meet Giles to talk about this prophecy dream."
Angel and Spike walked silently down the hall. They stopped at the elevator. Angel cleared his throat. "Thanks for the save in there, Spike."
Spike shrugged and took a long draw on his cigarette. "Slayer loves you, God knows why. Just figure it's better for us all 'round if you and her aren't going all broody over each other."
"You're quite certain it was the same woman in your dream?" Giles asked.
"Absolutely. She dropped this heavy brass key on the floor in front of me. I picked it up."
"And then what?" Giles asked.
"Then nothing. Angel woke me up."
Giles took his glasses off and begin to clean then. "Then he, uh, Angel stayed the night then?"
"No, I didn't stay the night and before anyone asks, I'm not evil. I brought her breakfast. When she didn't answer the door I let myself in." Angel said walking into the library.
"oh, good morning then." Giles looked up, turning a couple of shades of red. He turned back to Buffy. "Perhaps we should be looking for an ancient key, an artifact of some sort." Giles reached for one of the many books piled on the table.
"I don't know, for some reason that doesn't feel right. She gave me the key, but I don't think the real key has anything to do with it." Buffy said.
Giles look perplexed. He took his glasses off again and cleaned them again. "Indeed."
"Giles, last time we dealt with keys, the key was actually a person. Any chance of that being true again?"
"I can't imagine a person being key to Angel's-"he stopped and cleared his throat. Angel glared at him. "being key to Angel's book here."
Buffy glanced at Angel, Giles and Wesley. "Why do I feel like I missed the plot line here?"
Giles cleaned his glasses again. Wes had taken his off and was currently beating a staccato on the table. Angel had his hands in his pockets and his back to Buffy.
"Ok, out with it. I know you all are keeping something from me."
There was a collective sigh. Angel stepped forward. "Three and a half years ago Wes discovered a prophecy, the Shanshu prophecies, about the vampire with a soul. It said that after a time when I, we assumed, had lived through a few apocalypses, saved the world a couple of times and so on that I would be rewarded. I would live to die. I would become human."
"Oh God," Buffy covered her mouth with her hands. Her knees went out from underneath her. Angel was quick enough to catch her before she fell. Giles and Wesley quietly excused themselves. Buffy gulped air in great huge sobs. Tears soaked through Angel's shirt and stung his skin like holy water. Tears gathered in his own eyes and burned their way down his face. He would kill anyone else who hurt Buffy like this, yet he seemed to continue to do it time and time again.
"I didn't tell you before, Buffy, because there's not a time frame on this. It might never happen in your lifetime."
She looked up at him. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes were liquid with tears. She sniffed. "Angel, do you know how many times I dreamed about you becoming human?"
-"You know, it's a good thing I didn't fantasize about you turning human
only about 10 zillion times, because today would have been a real let
down."-
"I'm sorry, Buffy. I thought it would be best not to tell you, until, if it happened. And now, with Spike. I don't know. Maybe the prophecy is meant for him." Angel said.
"Do you really think the powers would be that cruel?" Buffy asked. "Angel, this isn't just your reward, it's mine too. It makes up for the childhood I gave up, the normalness I've never had. The people I've lost. How could you not tell me? How would you feel if Wes had found out about this prophecy and then decided it would be best not to tell you, in case it didn't happen?"
Buffy stood up and wiped at her face. "I am so tired of you making decisions for me. Maybe to you, I'll always be that little girl sitting on the steps in front of Hemry High, but a lot of things have happened to me since then, a lot has happened since you moved here. It's time everyone started letting me make my own damn decisions." She shook her head and sighed. "You know what, I'm going home."
She turned and walked out the Wolfram and Hart offices.