Chapter 9

Angel made Buffy promise not to tell anyone about his little break down and he put on his best smile when Gunn told him his plans to go to college. When everyone else got back from exploring they made plans to celebrate tomorrow after a good nights sleep. And that's where Angel was right now, trying his hardest to be happy for his friend even though he wished he'd stay right here.

"You ok man? You look kinda down." Gunn's voice brought Angel back from his thoughts.

"I'm fine Gunn, really happy for you. I am," he said at the look of disbelief on Gunn's face, "just worried about Doyle that's all. But I don't want to ruin your party, don't worry about me I'll be fine." He said that meaningfully so that Gunn would know that Angel was happy for him, he just wished it could wait. "But they won't live forever like me" Angel thought.

Gunn had nodded, satisfied with Angel's answer and went back to the party. Suddenly Buffy appeared at Angel's side. Angel hadn't seen her for the whole time of the party and was just about to ask her where she'd been, when Buffy spoke up.

"Sorry I was late, I was giving Emma a little training session before Gunn's party started. I guess it ran a little late huh?" she smiled apologetically at Angel, and before he could say it was fine she spoke again. "So how you doing?"

"I'm ok." He didn't say more, what else could he say. They'd talked about it all last night; Buffy had wondered why the others weren't helping out with Doyle. Angel said it was too much of a personal matter for him and Cordelia, he also confessed he didn't feel like he was helping too much. "I think I'm putting to much of this on Cordy." He'd said, "I'm gonna have to start helping out more, give Cordelia a break for a bit." He knew Cordelia wouldn't take it; she wouldn't let Doyle leave her sight if she could help it. Just then Harry came in.

"Hey, celebrating something?" she said. She was quickly brief on what was going on before Angel led her too his office. Buffy wanted to come alone too, but the look on Angel's face told her this wasn't something she could help with. "So I checked in on Francis and Cordelia." Harry said when as Angel shut the door behind them.

"Yeah? How are they doing? I'm gonna go over there soon to check in on them, I feel like I haven't really been doing my part." Angel looked upset at the thought.

"Well Cordelia's fine, but Francis didn't look to happy to see me…maybe the bad memories of the last few months of our marriage is too much for him to remember the good ones, to help him you know?"

"Maybe, Doyle was kinda a wreck last time you where here…forgot about that."

"Doyle, I keep forgetting you just call him Doyle here, seems kinda strange to me."

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Dawn was just trying to describe to Emma what had happened in Sunnydale right before it was destroyed. "Yea its just basically a hole in the ground now." She was saying when the phone rang; she picked it up casually. "Hello? Oh, hey Cordy…Harry? She's talking to Angel right now…yeah, ok. Buffy! Cordelia's on the phone!"

Buffy came over, a small look of concern was on her face. Maybe I'm over reacting, maybe there's nothing wrong and this is just a social call for Cordelia. It couldn't be fun being cut off from everyone you know except for a few people.

"Hello? …Ok, no don't worry I'll tell her… yes I'll go right now. Ok, bye." Buffy hung up the phone and started walking toward Angel's office without saying a thing. She walked up to the door and knocked hard, "Angel! Open up, it's important!"

Inside Angel and Harry looked curiously at the door; they had just been discussing what would be the best way to help Doyle. "Angel!" Buffy yelled, Angel hurried over to the door and opened it.

"Buffy? What's wrong?" Concern showed on his face, which was there only too much now a day.

"Cordy wants Harry to go to her apartment right away…she didn't say why." She said to Angel's unasked question.

Behind Angel Harry was nodding, "I'll go right away." She said and with that she walked out the door.

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"Don't be so worried."

"How can I not be worried? Something has to be up, why else would she want Harry over there right away."

"Maybe she just wanted to start helping Doyle, with Harry's help, right away."

Angel just sighed and buried his face into his hands. "Why wouldn't Cordelia want me there, does she think I don't want to be? That's got to be it!" He thought, out loud he said, "She thinks I don't want to be there, that I want to stay here at work. Which is no surprise, I've been using work as an excuse not to really think about it…God! This just makes me feel even more guilty!"

"Angel! Calm down I'm sure she has her reasons, maybe she…well I'm not sure what the reason's might be, but that isn't a reason to worry." When Angel just shook his head Buffy's anger rose. "OK, I am not, I repeat not gonna let you brood while your friends are out there celebrating something good that has happened. That's what you need, in fact that's what Cordelia needs too! To see the good that's in all of this, well…disaster I guess you can call it, nothing towards Doyle. So your gonna go out there," Buffy said taking his arm, "and you're gonna have a good time, and I'm gonna call Cordelia and tell her to get her ass up here and that to bring Doyle too, cause I'm sure it'd help him to get away fro the gloom for a bit. Now come on!" And with that Buffy pulled Angel out of his office back to the party.

When Buffy had finally pulled Angel all the way to the party she pushed him toward everyone and marched off to call Cordelia. Everyone turned to look at Angel. "Everything alright?" Wesley asked.

"Everything's fine, Buffy's gonna call Cordy and see if she wants to come to the…party…" he stopped talking with a shocked look on his face.

"What's up man?" Gunn asked.

Angel suddenly looked disgusted with himself, "I can't believe I did this! I forgot to tell Cordy about you going to college and the party!" he sat down and buried his face in his hands.

"Um…well I'll go tell Buffy she might have to explain something's to Cor…" Xander said and walked off in search of Buffy.

"Boy Angel, you're really slipping aren't ya? It's almost like you're the one who was ripped out of heaven, not Doyle." Spike said sarcastically.

"Spike this is no time for rude comments, why don't you go…well just go off somewhere?" Giles said.

Before Spike could protest Dawn had pulled him up by the hand, "Come on Spike, you can show me around the rest of the place." As they walked away Xander came in.

"Ok Buffy said she'll tell Cordelia that Gunn just told us today that's he's gonna go to college…"

"Hold on a minute there man, I might not get in." Gunn interrupted.

"Of course you'll get in Gunn." Fred said; Wesley nodded in agreement. They had been sneaking back into their chairs as they talked.

"And just were have you guys been?" Gunn asked eyebrows raised.

Fred waved away the question, "What were you saying Xander?"

"Um, yeah. Well so she's telling her that just today we found out so this party is even more last minute than she was, and we've only started it a hour or two ago. Every one got that?"

Everyone said yes and Willow and Oz looked up and nodded. Then they continued their quite conversation they were having in a corner of the room.

When Buffy came back into the room everyone looked at her expectantly, she shook her head. "She's not gonna come right now, she says Doyle is sleeping and she doesn't want to leave him. When I said that Harry could watch him until he wakes up she said no, that Doyle wasn't too happy 'bout Harry's being here in the first place and she doesn't want to upset him more. But they might come here a little later, even if the party's over. And no she didn't say why she just wanted Harry to go over there." Buffy said to Angel as soon as she saw his mouth open.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't we?" Angel said and everyone nodded in agreement.