Chapter 7: Angel Admits

00000000000000000000000000

Angel leapt towards Spike, intent upon his attack. Predicting the obvious move, Spike stepped out of the way, so that Angel landed with a rather large thud. Angel quickly kicked Spike, and the two were soon grappling on the ground.

Stop this at once! Giles yelled. As usual, he was ignored.

At first, Buffy shrank back, away from the fight. Then, in typical Buffy style, using actions over words, the Slayer dashed over to where the two vampires fought. She lifted Angel up off of Spike, and slammed him into the nearest wall. Satisfied that she'd gotten him out of the way, she knelt beside Spike, once again checking if he was hurt.

Slightly dazed, Spike sat up and reassured Buffy of his well-being. Angel lay nearby, stunned by Buffy's treatment of him. He stared at the scene before him, shocked by the expression on Spike's face. If he didn't know better, he'd almost think that.... nah, that's ridiculous...

Since Angel was loathe to tangle with Buffy, the physical approach seemed out. He moved to verbal. Anyone want to explain what the hell is going on here? he asked, wiping away some blood.

Yeah, you just burst in here and started beating on Spike for no reason! shouted Dawn, moving over to join Buffy and Spike, glaring balefully at Angel.

Attempting to ignore Dawn's defense of Spike - Spike, of all vampires! - Angel explained, I meant, what the hell is he doing here? With her? And how is it she's back? Is she ok? Buffy?

Angel approached her slowly. She seemed torn between backing away and hitting him. Seeing her reaction, Angel retreated a bit, not wishing to antagonize her. It hurt terribly, seeing her here, like this, in the arms of his enemy.

Attempting once more to take control of the situation, Giles stepped forward. Dawn, Spike, why don't you take Buffy upstairs. We'll explain the situation and the rather extraordinary circumstances to Angel.

Angel expected Spike to gloat, and taunt him; instead, the vampire clearly had eyes only for Buffy. Dawn cast one nasty look back at him, then the three were gone, up the stairs.

Fine. Explain, then. Angel growled moodily.

00000000000000000000000000

A/N: The rest of this chappy is fairly Angel-centered, so those of you who aren't interested in Angel might want to skip it.

00000000000000000000000000

So Giles, Tara, and Willow told Angel what had been going on over the past few years. He couldn't believe how much of Buffy's life he'd missed. He knew about her mother's and her own death, but that was about it. The whole deal with Glory was news to him; of course, he'd been in another dimension during a lot of that ordeal.

Angel struggled to believe that Spike - Spike! - had really let himself be so tortured by the hellgod, all to save an innocent girl. That Buffy had trusted him enough to watch her sister and mother, that he'd protected Dawn with his unlife, falling from a tower when he failed. Most of all, he couldn't believe Spike stayed around, even after Buffy was gone.

Spike had once confided in Willow that Buffy had told him to protect Dawn. It was obviously a duty which he took seriously.

It would have been easy to say it was all just an act to get into Buffy's pants - but what about when she was gone? No more excuses, then. No reason for Spike not to go and get the chip out, or get minions to kill for him. But he didn't.

Angel told them he needed some time, that he'd be back later that night. He went out for a walk through the Sunnydale cemeteries, staking a vampire here and there. He noted absently that there wasn't the increase in vampires and demons that one would expect after a Slayer's death. Of course, there'd been the bot - and how sick was that? - but there had also been Spike.

Angel was torn. Deep down, he knew that Spike was capable of loving, and that when he loved, he did so with all of his being. But actually admitting this was tantamount to acknowledging that it wasn't because of what he was, that Angelus couldn't love Buffy, but because of who he was. It pained Angel deeply to realize that, even soulless, Spike could love Buffy where Angelus couldn't.

But he knew that Spike had loved Drusilla. Angelus had reveled in this knowledge, using it to torture Spike by flaunting his relations with Drusilla. The Scoobies had explained about how Spike had decided to reveal his feelings for Buffy. They had seemed appalled at the idea of his chaining her up, and paid little attention to the part about Drusilla. The fact that Spike was willing to kill Drusilla for Buffy meant a great deal more than the humans could ever know. Angel understand just how important Drusilla had been to Spike. How had William put it? She was my salvation from mediocrity.' Something like that.

Besides all of that, Spike's emotions were easy to read; his love had shown as he looked at Buffy.

Fine, then. He'd be mature about this and admit Spike really did love Buffy, no matter how bitter it felt. The pain would be one more piece of Angel's penance, one more reminder of Angelus' evil.

00000000000000000000000000

A/N: Sorry about the lack of Angel-bashing, those of you who were looking for that; just not the way I wanted it to go. Hope you liked this chapter anyway! I'm not sure what I think of it, actually; half a chapter of introspection might be a bit too much...

Once again, thank you all so much for the reviews! They mean so much to me. Please continue to review. It really gets me writing!