Chapter 5 Half an hour earlier.

Angel knocked on the door to Buffy's office, telling himself for the umpteenth time that this was just a simple business call and that he wasn't going to burden Buffy with anything she didn't want to know about the last two years.
Talk about the lawsuit, he thought, or how you believe that something wicked is coming. Let's try to avoid the subjects of Cordelia and Spike. Or for that matter anything concerning our relationship.
It shouldn't have been this difficult. They had yet to speak about any of what had happened to them in the two years and there was no particular reason that they would start now. Yet every time he approached Buffy he had to mentally gird himself to not open doors that were better off closed.
By coincidence, Buffy opened the door to her office a second later. Before she said anything to him, he saw a rush of conflicted emotions cross her face. He knew that if it had been possible for him to see his own face, the same expressions were probably appearing on it.
"Angel. Hey, what ... Is there.. Anything that I can do for you?" Normally a master of conversation, Buffy was verbally stumbling . "What are you doing here?"
A good question. Angel thought that he had had a good reason for wanting to talk with Buffy, but now that the moment had arrived he couldn't remember any of them.
"Well Buffy, it's um.. Well it's just that.. The way things are going.. I..."
"Angel. Stop it." There was a firmness in her voice that he had almost forgotten. "I think that we both know what we need to talk about."
"Really?" Angel was both relieved and unnerved. Relieved because he was no longer in this box he'd been in for the past month, unnerved because the way she was talking she had decided that uncomfortable subjects were about to be broached.
"We've been dancing around each other for a while. Neither of us have wanted to talk about it, but if we're going to work together, we need to be open about it." Angel was about to argue when he realized that she was right.
"Yeah. There have been some things that have happened to me over the past two years that have changed me. "
"Same here. Well actually it's been a little longer than that for me... But, yeah I've changed too."
"I don't know what our relationship is going to be like. I know that there are feelings between us and all kinds of obstacles, but if we don't talk about them, we're never going to be able to get through them."
Angel sighed. "You're right. OK. Let's talk." There was another pause. It seemed to last for hours.
"Buffy, after you died---" "Angel, me and Spike---" They both stopped.
"I think we'd better decide who goes first." said Buffy.
"Yeah. OK." Angel was about to begin speaking when suddenly Buffy's phone rang. She sighed.
"Well, that was probably inevitable." She picked up the phone. "This had better be good." A pause.
"Yes, he's right here."
"No, I've never heard of him"
"He's asking for both of us by name?"
"And he won't tell you the details?" She sighed.
"OK. We'll be right down." She hung up the phone. "I really hate to say this, but we're going to have to continue this talk later."
"Who was that?"
"The receptionist. A man named Leonard Kopell just walked in off the street and told her that it was of the utmost importance that he talk to Buffy Summers and Angel."
"Who?"
"I've never heard of him either. But he said that it was of vital importance that he talk to both of us."
Angel was puzzled. No man had come to the office wanting to talk with Angel; they always wanted to talk to 'someone in charge'. For that matter, he didn't think that there was a person who knew Buffy was working here.
"Should we tell the others?" Buffy thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"Let's talk to this guy first. Maybe we can figure out whether or not he's serious."
"They're always serious, Buffy. What matters is the degree." Buffy looked at Angel.
"Let's hope it's not."

In the lobby, it was pretty easy to pick out Leonard Kopell. He was the only person in the entryway not wearing a suit. (It was very difficult for Angel to get used to everyone who wasn't a friend dressing in a coat and tie; but he didn't think he could find it in himself to declare it casual wear.)
Indeed Kopell was one of the most unkempt people that he had seen in a long time. He had bushy brown hair that stood up in mad-scientist corkscrews. He was wearing a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles that seemed too big for his narrow face. He had a light brown beard that seemed more fitting on a beatnik than any one who lived today. His shirt was not tucked in and the cuffs of his pants were not even. The overall effect seemed to be that of a man who had no personal regard for hygiene at all. It seemed more fitting for a teenager, but he was far too old to be one (Angel thought he was in his late-twenties but his appearance made it hard to tell) and he couldn't imagine any mother letting her son leave the house in such a fashion.
Kopell turned to both of them as they walked up to meet him. "You're Buffy Summers and Angel?" he said. His voice seemed perfectly neutral.
"Yes." Buffy said, her voice giving nothing away either.
"The Vampire Slayer and the vampire with a soul?" he said.
The two of them looked at each other. "I don't know of anyone else with those names." Buffy tried to hide it but it was clear she was unsettled by this total stranger knowing who they were. Angel was a little shaken up too. True both of them had been known in Sunnydale but mostly among the demon underworld. Most people in Sunnydale (and Los Angeles for that matter) didn't know who either of them really was.
"Mr. Kopell, have we met before?" asked Buffy.
"Well, yes and no." Kopell said.
"You're going to have to be a little clearer than that." said Angel.
"Well, over the past four years, I have the seen the two of you fight the forces of evil several times." Leonard said this as if it were as casual as meeting the two of them at a Dodger game. His surety and calmness were beginning to get under Angel's skin a little.
"For four years?" Buffy said as if she were talking to someone whose sanity was in question.
"I realize that you have been doing it for a little longer, of course, but I've only been witness to the last four years."
Buffy looked at Angel as if she were asking him to handle this. "Well, you'll have to excuse us if we don't believe you. Because I don't remember seeing you anywhere near where I have fought."
"Well, there's a reason for that. I wasn't actually there when I saw you fight."
Buffy was getting a look on her face that Angel had almost forgotten she had. Roughly translated, it meant: If this guy doesn't start making sense soon, I'm going to throw him out on his ass. Angel sympathized with her, but having had conversations like this before, he decided that he would give Leonard a couple of more minutes.
"So you have been seeing the two of us fight, but you weren't physically there. In other words, you've been having visions." Leonard nodded enthusiastically. "And you have been seeing this for four years."
"Well, no. To be perfectly precise, someone else has been allowing me to witness your heroics."
"Really? Who?" Angel had asked this question more so that he could get his bearings more then he expected to get an answer. He was therefore somewhat surprised when he got a response so quickly.
"I don't know for certain, but I think that it's God."
There was silence for several seconds. Angel had rarely seen Buffy at a loss for words but he didn't blame her. This particular argument was one that they had never really prepared for. For all the fighting that they had done against evil, they had rarely even asked the question who might be on the other side. Gods (capitalized or not) rarely entered into Angel's thinking. He had never even registered that 'the powers that be' as anything other than observers. He guessed the fact that there were demons in the world led to the possibility that there was some other force representing good. But to hear a stranger with utter certainty that God was sending him visions... that was hard to deal with.
Finally Buffy recovered. "So let me get this straight. You've been seeing visions of us for the past four years and you decide that you have to come to us now?"
Leonard shifted uneasily. "Well... Um... The thing is... I didn't learn your names until about three months ago. You see, mostly the visions were unclear --- flashes of things, you standing over a demon, you with a stake in your hand that sort of thing."
"So you were seeing what we did but not who we were." said Buffy.
"Well, um that's the long and short of it."
"And you got these visions from God." Angel said.
"I don't know who else would send them to me." That was a perfectly valid point. Angel looked at Buffy and they both made a decision to let the whole 'God' thing go until he got to his point.
"Mr. Kopell---" Buffy began.
"Please call me Leonard. I don't think I'm distinguished enough to be called Mr. Kopell."
"OK Leonard. Without meaning any disrespect, you come to our office--- I can only imagine that you had some vision of us here--- " Leonard nodded- -- "tell us that you know us and that you've come to---" Buffy stopped. "Why exactly did you come here?"
The confident look on Leonard's face went away. Suddenly, Angel could recognize that this man was scared of something. "Because I need your help. And I understand that helping people is what you do."
"Well, if there's anything that we can do, we'll do it. What exactly is your problem?" said Angel.
"I know that you probably hear this all the time, but with me it really is true: It's kind of complicated."
"It always is." sighed Buffy. Angel ignored her. He could tell that something was bothering Leonard that was beyond the norm. He kept shuffling his feet and fiddling with his glasses together.
"OK, there's something that you should know about me before we go any further."
"And that is?"
Leonard took a deep breath. "The thing is, three years ago, I was hospitalized---I mean, it was more like committed..."
"You had to go to an institution." Suddenly Buffy had gone very still.
"Yes. I was diagnosed for suffering optical and audio hallucinations."
"Did this happen... When you told your family about what was
happening to you? About the things that you were seeing and hearing." There was something in Buffy that Angel hadn't seen in a while. Empathy. But he couldn't figure out why.
"The thing is... I saw and heard a lot of things for such a long time... I didn't start getting names for a very long time... I didn't know that you were real people." Leonard's voice was getting shakier and Angel wondered if he was about to start crying.
"It's all right, Leonard. I know that this has been very confusing and frightening for you but you're safe now." Under other circumstances, the sight of this small young girl comforting this older man might have seemed comic. But it hurt Angel in a place that he hadn't felt before. "Everything's going to be all right."
Leonard looked up and fixed Buffy with a stare. Angel recognized this kind of expression too; it was the sight of a man with eyes much older than his real age . Angel knew that his own eyes were like that.
"Thank you for saying that. But I don't think it will. No, I don't think that it will."

They had gathered back on the first floor. Angel had asked if he should bring in the others but Buffy decided to put them on hold, at least for now. They still didn't know what this man (even though he was clearly older than her, she still had trouble thinking him as such) wanted and if confronted with a group he might fold up still further. They had put Leonard on a couch and offered him a drink, but he still seemed as if he might fly apart at the slightest thing. She decided that the best thing to do would be to let him talk and try and gradually work out what he wanted.
"Leonard, you have to understand." Buffy began." Whatever is frightening you or worrying you I'm sure that's its very bad, but me and Angel and the rest of our friends, we're used to dealing with these kinds of things."
"Yeah, and we do have the kind of reach that if you tell us what's wrong, there's a very good chance that we'll be able to stop it." Buffy looked at Angel somewhat surprised. She knew that Angel had been doing this for four years, but she had not expected him to have such a tight grip on it.
However, it seemed to be working because Leonard gave them a smile. It was very fragile but it was there nevertheless. "I know. I mean I have been seeing these things for a while... And I know that you... You and your friends... You've always managed to come out on top."
"Right." Buffy was still not quite sure how to take his visions seriously. She believed they were probably real but they might still be hallucinations.
"It's just... I've seen you fight. And ... And even when you win, you lose people."
Buffy had to work to stifle a sigh herself. "You're right. There are no guarantees."
"I'm just not sure if I can take losing any more people." Angel and Buffy exchanged a glance.
"I thought you just saw these things." Angel said.
"No, the losing people started long before I started seeing things."
"Maybe you better go back a bit. When did the losing people start?"
"When I went to high school." Suddenly Buffy felt a chill go through her. Suddenly, she knew, even before she asked the question, where Leonard was from.
"And where was that?" she managed to form the question.
Leonard gave a smile with absolutely no humor in it. "Same place as you." He stuck out his hand. "Sunnydale High: Class of '94."
"Excuse me a moment. " Buffy got up to her feet while trying to maintain the veneer of calm she had been exercising so far. She didn't think that she succeeded and she really didn't care; she needed to talk to Angel.
"Call down Wesley and Giles. I think this could be important."
Angel tried to turn his head away from here. "You think this is him?"
"A man from a dark place who sees things that no man shall see?" Buffy turned back to Leonard. "Yeah, I think this is our seer."