Epilogue

Angel frowned into his drink, stirring it with his straw.

"Something wrong?"

Looking up, he fell into Buffy's concerned gaze and offered her a smile.

"No, Just... This is ice tea?"

Buffy laughed, they were sat in a local coffee shop, Angel having made good on his promise of coffee. When they'd come in, Angel had taken one look at the drinks menu and passed it over to Buffy, completely confused as to what anything was. In deference to his doctor's orders, she'd ordered him a low caffeine fruit ice tea, only trouble was, it came in clear plastic cup, was bright yellow and was topped with whipped cream.

"Yes Angel, that is ice tea." She told him with a chuckle then sobered slightly. "Any news about the girl?"

"No more than the we knew when we left her at the hospital, I assume her parents have taken her home by now." Angel replied after having sat back in his seat. "God 10 minutes later and she..."

Reaching over Buffy laced her fingers through his and gave him a smile that part reassurance, part sympathy. "You did good Angel, we weren't to know that it took the girls before hand and we never would have figured it all out if it wasn't for you."

"Willow..." Angel tried to protest

"Willow agrees with me, and so does Faith. In fact Faith and I were talking and..."

"And what?" Angel frowned.

"We both want to go back to slaying properly and every slayer needs a watcher, even an unofficial one so... feel like being our book guy?"

Angel leant forward so his face was close to hers and said teasingly. "I thought watchers weren't supposed to have close relationships with their Slayers?"

"Since you won't be an actual watcher, just our book guy, I'm sure no one would mind." Buffy returned in a similar fashion. "So, you in?"

Angel leant back again with a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm in."

They sat in silence for a moment, both using the action of taking sip from their drinks as a cover. Buffy put her cup down on the table and sighed.

"We have a lot to talk about don't we?" Angel watched over the rim of his glass as she ran a hand through her hair. "What exactly are we doing Angel? A week ago you couldn't even look at me, and before you say anything, I know ok, you had no reason not to believe Giles and Andrew said. GOD, why is nothing ever simple with us?"

Angel snorted and put his drink down. "I have no idea."

Taking a deep breath Angel decided to lay it on the line.

"I want this Buffy, I want to see if we can make something of this. So many of the things that drove us apart before are gone, but we're different people now, so much has changed. I'm not looking to go back to where we were, to the relationship we had back then."

"Ok, I get that, so what now?"

"We get to know each other again, and we try and find way to... get past all these hurts we have. Then if we still think there's something there, we start with a clean slate, tabala rasa, blank canvas."

"Let go of the past? Easier said than done I think."

"Buffy, I can't do this with you if every time something goes wrong you throw my leaving or... Angelus; in my face, ok? I know you're not a high school girl any more, but I won't let you hold my past over me, I do that to myself enough. I'm not saying you will, but I have to be sure, you won't. We both have issues, so we need to deal with them before anything else."

Buffy nodded sadly, it was all true, she was well aware she had thrown his past in his face more than once during their turbulent relationship. And she had issues with him to work out too, a part of her kept expecting him to just suddenly up and leave, so she knew he was right.

Angel reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand, bringing her eyes up to his.

"I want this, I want you. Tell me it's not worth the effort."

"I want this too, it's worth it." Buffy replied, and then added slyly, "But I still want my Angel kisses while we find out about our new and improved selves."

Angel smiled and captured her lips in a soft kiss. "Seems like a fair trade to me."

THE END

SEQUEL
WHEN A MAN LOVES...
COMING SOON