Title: Amends

Author: Writer Girl

Summary/Teaser: Amends with a few changes and a better ending

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. Joss Whedon et al own everything. Dialog from Amends. I am not the first person to do this type of fic.

Pairings: BA, CX, WO

Author e-mail: Everything up to and including Amends, season 2 of Buffy.

Feedback: PLEASE?

Rating: PG13 to be safe. Same as the show, really.



Buffy and her mother made their way through the busy Christmas tree farm. Joyce spotted a group of trees sprayed with fake snow.

"Do you wanna get one with snow on it?" She asked her daughter. "It'd be very Christmas-y."

"I think those are just for display." Buffy told her.

"Oh. You know, honey, I was thinking maybe we should invite Faith to spend Christmas Eve with us." Buffy frowned.

"I don't know." She said. "Faith and I don't really hang out. Or talk. Or make eye contact, lately."

"You really want to let her spend Christmas Eve in that dingy motel room?" Joyce asked.

"You're still number one with the guilt trip, mom." Buffy said.

"I try."

"I'll ask her." Buffy said, giving in.

"You're a doll." They split up. Buffy noticed a circle of dead trees. A tree merchant approached her.

"Bunch of 'em just up and died on us. Don't know why. If you want one, I could make you a hell of a deal." Buffy shook her head.

"No, thanks." She denied. She heard her mother calling.

Buffy invited Faith to Christmas Eve dinner, but Faith claimed to have plans.

"Well, the offer still stands." Buffy assured her, and left.



Rupert Giles was in his kitchen, cooking Christmas Eve dinner, when he heard a knock on his door.

"One moment!" He called, putting down his spatula. The Watcher froze when he saw the man in the doorway.

"Angel." Giles said by way of greeting. He was surprised by the coldness of his own voice. The vampire stared at the floor.

"Sorry to bother you." Angel said softly. Giles couldn't help a bitter chuckle at the irony of that statement. "Sorry, coming from you, that phrase strikes me as rather funny. Sorry to bother me."

"I need your help." Angel explained.

"And the funny just keeps coming."

"I know that I have no right to ask for it." Angel admitted, carefully avoiding Giles' eyes. "But there's no one else." There was an awkward silence. Finally, Giles spoke. "Alright." The Watcher stepped away from the door.

"I can't come in unless you invite me." Angel reminded him softly. Giles came back to the door with a loaded crossbow.

"I'm aware of that." He said, aiming the weapon at Angel. "Come in." The vampire did as he was told, stepping inside the apartment. Giles kept the crossbow trained on him as they spoke.

"I've been seeing…I've been having dreams, lately. My past. It's like I'm reliving it. It's so vivid…" Angel stammered. Struggling to explain. "I need to…I need to know why I'm here."

"Back on earth?" Giles guessed. The vampire nodded.

"I should be in a Demon Dimension suffering an eternity of torture." Angel said shakily.

"I don't feel particularly inclined to argue with that." Giles agreed bitterly.

"But I'm not." Angel continued. "I was freed. And I don't understand why."

"Knowing why you are back would give you peace of mind?" Giles questioned.

"It might."

"Do you think that's something you ought to have?" The Watcher wondered aloud, bending to put down the crossbow. Angel's eyes widened as he saw what appeared to be Jenny Calendar standing behind Giles.

"Because, uh, to be blunt," Giles continued, "The last time you became complacent about your existence turned out rather badly." Then, he noticed the vampires distraction and fear.

"What is it?" Giles asked, surprised to find himself genuinely concerned.

"You, you don't see her?"

"See who?" Giles questioned.

"I, I can't!" Angel shouted, and ran from the apartment, leaving Giles alone. The Watcher was ashamed at how he'd treated Angel, who was in at least as much pain as he himself was, probably more. And so he decided that he would research for Angel, and hopefully figure out what was haunting the man he'd once considered a friend.



Giles was already in the library when Buffy got there.

"You're saying you had a dream about Angel?" He asked. She shook her head.

"No, I was in Angel's dream." She insisted.

"I'm not sure that that's even-."

"Giles, there were things in the dream I couldn't possibly know about. It was his past. He was dreaming it. And somehow I got sucked in." She sighed. "There's something wrong with him, Giles."

"I know." Giles admitted. "I saw him. He wanted to know why he was back."

"Is there some way for us to find that out?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know." The Watcher replied. "I've been looking."
"Well, let me look, too." She said quickly. "I'm not seeing him anymore." She promised at the look on Giles' face. "I'm trying to do the right thing, put him behind me. And that's never gonna happen if we keep doing guest spots in each other's dreams." Giles nodded his acceptance.

"So we'll help him?" She asked.

"Yes." He agreed. "We'll help him." Xander, who had been standing unnoticed in the doorway, spoke up.

"Where do we start?" He asked. Both Buffy and Giles gave him a look.

Look, I know I haven't been the mostest best friend when it comes to the whole 'Angel' thing, and I don't know, maybe I'm getting the Hanukkah spirit."

In that moment Giles gained a new respect for the boy he'd come to love as his own son. In the two years since Xander had started helping the Slayer fight evil, he really had grown up so much. They all had, himself included. The three teens had, on so many occasions been forced to take on challenges no one should have to face, and they had done it with an amazing level of maturity.

"We start, unsurprisingly, with research." Giles told them. "Xander, the Black Chronicals. Buffy, take the diary of Lucius Temple. You can skip the parts about his garden, unless you're keen on growing heartier beets."

"So, you're sure this is how you want to spend your Christmas vacation?" Buffy asked her friend. He shrugged.

"This is actually the most exciting thing I've got planned." He admitted. "Who else can claim that pathetic a social life?"

"Hey, guys." Willow greeted them. "What are we doing?"



"He's going to come over Christmas Eve and we're gonna watch videos." Willow told Buffy, referring to her plans with Oz. They were sitting at a table in the library. They had been researching for hours, but so far, had nothing.

"That's good, right?" Buffy asked. "You guys are back."

"It's good." Willow confirmed. "In an awkward, uncomfortable kind of way." Buffy smiled sympathetically. "I just don't know how to make Oz trust me." She continued.

"Xander has a piece of you that Oz just can't touch." Buffy told her. "I guess now it's just about proving to Oz that he comes first."

"Thanks." Willow went back to her reading. A few minutes later, she commented, "Hey, this guy likes beets."

"I read that one already." Buffy told her. She sighed in frustration. "We're not getting anywhere."



Buffy woke from her dream in shock. She hurried down the steps to Giles.

"Here, Buffy, take a look." He said, handing her a book.

"These pages have references to something known as, the, uh, First." He explained, pointing.

"First what?" Buffy asked.

"Evil. Absolute evil. Older than man, than demons. It could have had the power to bring Angel back." Buffy looked at the book.

"These guys," Buffy said, pointing to a picture of an eyeless priest. "They were in my dream. I fell asleep up there."

"You had another dream, with Angel?" Giles questioned. Buffy nodded. "What happened?"

"We don't need to get sidetracked." Buffy said evasively, not wanting to tell her Watcher, who wasn't fond of Angel, that Angel had killed her in her dream. Luckily, he seemed to accept her answer. "Who are these guys?" She asked.

"Um, they're known as the Bringers, or Harbingers. They're high priests of the First." Giles explained. "They can conjure spirit manifestations and set them on people, haunt them."

"These are the guys working the mojo on Angel?"

"We gotta stop them." Xander commented.

"You can't fight the First, Buffy. It's not a physical being." Giles told here.

"Well, I can fight these priest guys." Buffy said, desperate.

"If we can find them." Xander added.



They left Willy's with very little information.

"Man, is it hot." Xander complained as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. "It was nice and cool in there."

"Yeah. A nice, cool, waste of time."

"Hey, we know underground." Xander argued. "That's a start."

"Yeah, in a town with fourteen million miles of sewer." Buffy agreed sarcastically.

"Plus a lot of natural cave formations and a gateway to Hell. Yeah, this does resemble square one."

"I don't know what to do." Buffy admitted.

"I think right now the best plan is to deck the halls with bows of holly." Xander said. He smiled reassuringly. "You'll catch the bad guys…Sooner or later."