Chapter 1
"You missed history." Willow Rosenberg said as she walked down the hall towards the library with her best friends Buffy Summers and Xander Harris.
"I know," Buffy said, "Did he notice?"
"Oh yeah, he noticed! And, he gave me and Willow the3rd degree trying to find out where you were." Xander put his arm around Buffy's shoulder, "So... where were you?"
Buffy pushed Xander's hand away, "I went to see Angel."
"YOU WHAT!?" Xander stopped dead; the girls turned around to look at him, "You're grounded for playing mother against watcher so you could go see this guy; no, thing, he isn't human!"
"Xander!" Willow yelled at him.
He continued as if she hadn't spoken, "And now you're cutting class to see him. Does anybody else think this is a bad idea?"
"What's a bad idea?" Giles asked, walking up behind them.
Buffy stammered, "Giles, I, uh, Well I, um-"
Willow came to the rescue, "Buffy was hoping to get out of training today so I could help her study for tomorrow's history test."
"Thank you," Buffy mouthed to her.
"Well you can't take the entire evening off. However, I suppose if you need to study I can let you out a little early. It means you'll have to patrol longer tomorrow though." Giles told her sternly.
Patrol longer, with Angel, twist my arm. Buffy thought. "Okay," she sighed. It wouldn't do her any good if Giles knew that she wanted to go patrolling.
"I'll expect you promptly after school then." Giles walked away.
"Do we really have a test tomorrow?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," Willow told her, "it's pretty boring material, so I'm thinking we should study at the Espresso Pump where there are plenty of stimulants to keep us awake. And it's over the '20's and prohibition, so I figured we should study with someone who live through it."
"Willow!" Buffy beamed, "You're a goddess, a genius, a goddess and a genius!"
"What did I miss?" Xander, being his clueless self, asked, "Someone lived though the tw...? Willow, you're not helping matters."
"What's a best-friend for, if not to help find excuses to see her boyfriend?"
Buffy smiled, "And if the situation was reversed, I would so return the favor." The three of the started off to class.
"You could be helping her move on," Xander whined, "You know, getting her out of a destructive relationship."
"Angel and Buffy have a perfectly healthy relationship."
"Yeah," his voice dripped with sarcasm, "As long as she doesn't decide to give him a happy, because we all know that the moment those to crazy love birds get groiny again the end of the world won't be far behind."
Willow scolded him, "You are such a drama queen, Xander. There's so much more to a relationship than... you know."
Buffy sighed. She knew these arguments could go on forever. Buffy remembered back to what almost happened this afternoon, and secretly she had to agree with Xander, if she and Angel weren't careful they could destroy everything.
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When Buffy walked into the Espresso Pump, Willow and Angel had already set up camp at a group of chairs near the back. Willow stood up and waved Buffy over. She was drinking a dry, double mocha latte and Angel had a cup of tea. Buffy paused when she saw the books on the table, "We really are going to study, aren't we?"
Angel got up and kissed Buffy. "Willow said you needed help in history," he said as he sat back down.
"We didn't get you anything because we didn't know when you'd be here." Willow cut in.
Buffy sat down next to Angel, and then waved a waitress over, "I'll have a French Vanilla Cappuccino with nonfat milk and a double shot of espresso." Buffy turned to her boyfriend, "So how hard will it be to learn this stuff?"
"I don't know," Angel told her. He lifted her hand slightly guiding her so that she was sitting in his lap, "I lived through it, so it comes pretty naturally to me."
The waitress brought Buffy's drink, "Thank you." Buffy took a drink, and then turned to Willow, "Okay, let's start the ball rolling on this crazy party house of fun."
"We'll start with some easy questions? Prohibition was a ban on ...?" Willow motioned that Buffy should fill-in the blank.
Buffy looked to Angel, who said, "
"Right. Who was the major mob boss in Chicago?"
Angel prompted Buffy, "Al Ca..."
"Alcohol!" Buffy piped quite proud of herself. "Alcohol?"
"No," Willow said, "Al Capone. One more easy question before we start the harder stuff. Who was the president?"
Buffy glanced at Angel, waiting for her hint. "Don't look at me," he told her, "I didn't pay attention to politics."
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Chicago, 1923
"That's the last time you double cross me, quiff!"
The door leading to the alley Angel was hiding in slammed open. A large man in a pinstripe suit pushed a dame out in front of him. "You've got some nerve, talking to the bulls. Then you show up here!"
"Please Johnny, you gotta believe me." The lady looked like a jazz singer in that get-up, not that Angel had ever seen one before; juice joints had strict dress codes. "I'd never flip on you, Johnny." Slowly Angel crept toward the pair. They didn't see him at all, Angel never expected them to. He was a bum, a Mick, filthy from living on the streets. That was as good as being invisible.
"Stop feeding me a line, doll. I'm not going to be left holding the bag on this one." Johnny put his hand inside his jacket.
"Course not, Johnny, never thought of it. Please, Johnny, I ain't feeding you a line, someone's got you all balled up."
Johnny pulled a gun from his jacket pocket, "I think you're the one who's balled up."
This was Angel's chance; he leaped at the man, knocking his gun of his hand. There was a shout, and Angel turned to look at the woman who was now holding the discarded gun. For the first time, he got a good look at the woman. She looked vaguely familiar, but before he could figure out where he had seen her before there was a large crack and something bit into Angel's chest.
Not again! Angel thought while he was lying on the ground. I hate it when they shoot me.
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"Angel. Angel are you okay?"
"Yeah, Willow. I'm fine." Angel looked around. He sighed; he wasn't bleeding or alone in an alley, he was in the coffee shop, with his girlfriend and her best-friend.
"Thinking of anything interesting?" Buffy asked.
"No," he told her; turning to Willow, "Next question."
Willow looked quizzically at him, "We're done. We've been here for two hours."
Buffy yawned and nodded, "We non-creature-of-the-night types need our beauty sleep."
"If you're planning on coming over for lunch again tomorrow I should probably be getting to bed also." Angel smiled at Buffy, who was still sitting on his lap.
"Just as long as I'm back in time for the history test I just got done studying for," she kissed him, then stood up.
Willow said, "Buffy, I never thought I'd say this, but, maybe Xander is right, maybe sneaking out of school is not the best thing to do. You'll be seeing each other on patrol, and you could probably use the last minute cram time."
Buffy looked from her boyfriend to her best-friend, then back to her boyfriend, "She has a point. But if you-"
"I'll see you at sundown for patrolling." Buffy and Angel kissed once more before he headed back to the mansion, and the girls started toward their houses.
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