"No regard for authority, it was not your duty to intervene, Riley is a senior officer, you're lazy… this from the loser who sits on his butt all day when everyone else is stuck cleaning up HIS messes!" Buffy grumbled, hitting the leather bag yet again.

She had gone straight to Giles' after her "meeting" and started working out, avoiding the library (where he'd inevitably be) completely on her way to the gym. She had been working out for over an hour, showing no mercy to the punching bag before her. Garrison's words had infuriated her, giving her the incredible urge to do some serious damage. The nerve of him to talk to her like that, completely forgetting the situation and focusing on poor Riley's bloody nose. Not to mention her punishments; taking away the closest people she actually has to friends, and how was she supposed to write an apology letter to Riley when she still wanted to punch his face in? And taking away her bike was more than a little annoying, there's no reason for her not to have it, and it's the only real way she has to get around.

But besides the snide comments and unfair judgements, one of the things that enraged her the most (besides his reaction to Angel) was her new 'curfew'. The only reason she's been able to last this long off duty is because of her late-night patrols. Even if all she got was a pissed off drunk, at least she could do something! Every night it seemed like she was driven by this unknown force, one that would scream at her to get outside and hunt. She'd always assumed it was a part of all warriors, something that somehow most had managed to repress, but whatever it was it would not be quieted until she was able to run, or beat up something. She had tried everything, including doing late-night training at Giles' but nothing else was a substitute, she had to be outside. The thought of being stuck inside for six hours, (four of which she was usually most active) everyday for the next two weeks was enough to make her scream.

Her anger rising, she began hitting the bag at a faster pace, her mind unable to forget her earlier encounter. She pounded on the bag when suddenly it came off it's hook and flew across the room, splitting open and pouring small beads everywhere. Buffy let out a small yelp, cursing as blood began pouring out of her now split open hand.

Quickly, she moved across the room and picked up her towel, wrapping her hand in the thick cloth.

"So have you finished brutally beating on it or should I just leave it on the floor?" said a voice from behind her.

Buffy grimaced, turning to face her trainer with a slight blush.

"Sorry."

Giles moved further into the room,

"No, it's quite alright. I suppose I just never expected you to break it down, can't say I can remember it happening before. No worries though, I'm sure in due time the council will replace it."

"Don't be so sure." Buffy mumbled, sitting down on a nearby bench.

"I received a report from Richard Garrison's secretary, it includes the accusations placed on you and your punishments. As well as a few minor notes from Mr. Garrison which given your current disposition, I feel it would be best not to repeat."

Buffy sighed,

"So this is the part where you lecture me, and tell me how wrong I was, right?"

Giles shook his head, sitting next to her on the bench.

"No, no lectures or inspirational speeches this time." Buffy looked up at him wearily, not quite believing him. "I feel that although your actions were- questionable, your motives are admirable. I agree that what Riley did was wrong, and it seems that he would most certainly deserve what he got. However there is one cause for concern."

Buffy looked up at him expectantly.

"This person, this man that you saved, I needn't remind you that he is indeed a vampire. Although his circumstances are quite intriguing, I am still worried about his intentions. You didn't know this man before a day or two ago Buffy, and yet you risked your life to save his own. It would seem that you have an overwhelming amount of trust in him; still it was you who, as you would put it 'freaked out' when you were told of his arrival. I trust your judgement, and it is obvious that you have resolved to assist him. And although I'm puzzled by your actions, I have faith in you. All I ask is that you be careful, as appearances can be deceiving."

There was a long silence, Buffy looked up at her trainer giving him a weak smile.

"Thank you, for having trust in me… It means a lot. I know that all this probably sounds majorly weird but… somehow I just know that we can trust him. And this is all so confusing but at the same time, the one thing that's clear is that I have to help him, I guess I'm just not exactly sure how yet. I promise that I'll be careful though, I know you have a tenancy to worry."

Giles stood up as Buffy walked towards the doorway.

"Giles? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"How do you write an apology letter to someone, when you're honestly not sorry for what you did?"

Her trainer chuckled,

"I'll give you a list of 'big-stuffy-british-words' to use, chances are he won't have the faintest idea what you're talking about."

Buffy smiled,

"Thanks."

Exiting the house, she went out to her bike and climbed on; anxious to get home. Hoping that she may be able to actually have a conversation with her handsome houseguest, she drove towards her complex, a tired smile crossing her features as she went.

A half hour later, Buffy opened the door to her apartment. She had taken a while to lock up her bike, doubting that she could 'sneak around' on something that loud without the council knowing about it. Putting her jacket down she headed into the kitchen and grabbed a cola from the fridge, before putting in a few more containers of blood (smiling, when she noticed that the others had disappeared). After quickly draining the caffeine filled beverage, she headed towards her room to see if Angel was still awake. Peering inside the door, she noticed that her bed was neatly made and there was no vampire in sight. Letting out an angry sigh, she waked in and grabbed a nearby stake from her desk before quickly heading towards the door, ready to kick some very cute-vampire butt.

She was so engrossed in plotting her revenge however, that she didn't notice the other presence in the living room before she ran into a broad chest, knocking herself backwards and onto the floor. Groaning at the pain that shot through her injured hand as she landed, she looked up to the tall figure she had ran into.

"Buffy are you okay?" he said, crouching down to help her up.

"Angel? You're still here?" she asked, allowing him to lift her to her feet.

"Ya, it's a bit too sunny for me to go anywhere. Why did-" Angel stopped when he saw the several stakes that now covered the ground. "Are those for me?" he said, trying no to sound as worried as he was.

Buffy sighed, picking up the discarded pieces of wood and throwing them into her weapons chest.

"They were. That is before you went all shadowy guy on me."

"You thought I'd left?"

"Well, ya. You weren't in my room, and I didn't see you and I've had a majorly bad day…" Sighing she looked at him wearily, "Sorry, I have a tendency to overreact sometimes."

Angel just nodded, looking towards her bloody hand.

"Are you sure you're alright? Your hand is bleeding a lot."

Buffy looked down at her forgotten injury, heading into the kitchen to rinse it off.

"Ya, I'm fine. I was just at my trainer's place and I kinda split open his punching bag."

"You split it open?"

"And knocked it across the room, ya. Like I said, I tend to overreact."

Heading into her room, she picked up her first aid kit off the floor and grabbed some bandages before attempting to dress her wound. Unfortunately she had split open her good hand and was failing miserably at her task. She froze as she felt two cool hands touch hers, carefully taking over the job and easily wrapping her hand.

Finished, Angel pulled away looking sheepishly at the floor. Buffy stared at him tenderly, a small smile crossing her face.

"Thanks, that's probably the nicest thing someone's done for me all day." There was a short silence before she shrugged off her amorous emotions and turned to him again. "What am I doing, you're the one who's all beat up. Here, let me take a look at your ribs."

Leading him to sit on her bed, she carefully lifted up his shirt and pulled off the bandage to examine his wound. She was surprised to see that it was almost completely healed; there was only a small cut where the gash used to be. Carefully re-dressing the cut she looked over the rest of his injuries, most of which seemed to be healed, with the exception of his foot which, (given his slight hiss of pain when she touched it) seemed to still be sprained. Sighing she looked over his ankle, it was somewhat swelled but not half as much as it had been.

"You're doing good, at this rate you should be able to walk normally on that foot in a day or two, as long as you stay off of it until then."

"I heal fast." Angel said simply, trying to forget about the throbbing of his foot from walking around so much.

Buffy gave him a nod and put her first aid kit away before sitting in a chair across from him. They sat in an uncomfortable silence, neither knowing quite what to say. Buffy was having an inner struggle of whether to kiss him until the sky turned purple or run in the other direction. Sneaking a glance at him, she decided on neither, and looked down at the suddenly interesting floor.

Across from her, Angel was in a similar debate. Questions from earlier swarmed his mind, unfortunately so did (only somewhat) unwanted visions of what else they could be doing right now that could prove to be fun.

"Who's your trainer?" he blurted out, mentally kicking himself once the words had come out of his mouth. He was three centuries old and that was the best he could do?

"What?" Buffy asked, surprised by his question and the sudden break of silence.

"In your note, you mentioned that you'd had a call from your trainer. I was just wondering who exactly that was." He said, attempting to explain better.

Buffy looked at him strangely for a moment before she remembered that he wouldn't know what her trainer was.

"Oh, okay well, the colony- it's guarded by warriors: people trained by the council to fight demons and stuff. There's two levels of warriors, ones who have been put on duty and ones that haven't. As you get more experience you get a higher 'rank' I guess, basically it just means that you get to boss more people around. Every warrior is assigned a trainer, usually a stuffy british person who trains you from a young age to eventually do your job. Some warriors don't ever get to know their birth parents, others aren't even born here. Giles is my trainer, he's practically raised me, he lives a few minutes away from here."

Angel nodded, absorbing her words.

"Do you? Know your birth parents?"

Buffy shook her head.

"No, I was brought here when I was just over three years old. I honestly don't even remember them. The council's always been really secretive when it came to my parents, I'm not even sure how much Giles knows. I wasn't ever told their names, Giles pleaded for most of the time I was growing up to try and find out where I was born."

"Did he?"

"Eventually. It turns out I was originally born just outside of New York. My parents took me to Ireland when I was two, but there was an attack on the village we were in a year after. I don't know what happened to my parents, I was found a few weeks after the battle was over hiding in some rubble, Giles said it was amazing I survived that long alone- the council either didn't know how or just wouldn't tell him. Anyway they picked me up and shipped me here, I'm not sure why they didn't just put me into a closer colony, I guess they figured I'd be safer around headquarters or something."

Angel was silent, searching for something to say. He could remember that battle; he had been in Ireland when it happened. It was a small but pretty high-populated village of rogues, no one was sure who invaded or why but most of it was wiped out overnight. He had tried to help out but there was so much destruction that there wasn't much he could do. He had been knocked out when a bunch of armed warriors had shown up, and as a result, forgotten most of the details of those weeks. But hearing the story again, he had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he had forgotten something vital.

Shrugging off the feeling, he turned to Buffy once again.

"So your trainer, Giles, raised you all your life to be a warrior? Is that what you were doing that night I saw you?"

Buffy smiled sheepishly,

"Actually I haven't been put on active duty. So technically, I can't patrol or anything yet. Really I'm not supposed to fight anyone or anything except for training- w-which I don't of course because that would be wrong and completely disobeying orders." She added quickly, blushing slightly.

Angel gave out a small chuckle, knowing that she probably 'disobeyed orders' on a regular basis, but was sneaky enough not to get caught. Suddenly a thought came to his mind, causing him to look at her with seriously.

"Did you get in trouble? For helping me before, is that why you had to got out today?"

Buffy sighed,

"Yes and no. I did have to go to the council's headquarters, but it wasn't as much for helping you." At Angel's questioning glance, she continued, "I had the honour of a meeting with a Mr. Garrison today, he's like second in command at the council, and he took it upon himself to inform me how wrong it was of me to 'attack my commanding officer' and that it wasn't in place to defend you. Said that they'd never let 'a brat like me' on active duty."

Angel was overwhelmed by both guilt for getting her in trouble, and rage towards Richard for treating her the way he did.

"I'm sorry." He said weakly.

Buffy smiled slightly,

"Don't be, I'm not. Angry and feeling slightly homicidal at the moment yes, but it was worth it. The punishments aren't a huge biggie either. I have to write an apology to Riley, and lost my bike for a few weeks. Other than that it's not too bad. I can't see Faith or Gunn for a while but they're always busy anyway, the only thing I'm totally gonna miss is my night-life."

"Night-life?" Angel asked, almost not wanting her answer.

"Ya I can't go out past midnight for the next two weeks, usually I have to patrol at least every other day or I go crazy, and training with Giles is less than a challenge these days. I'm pretty sure two weeks without it will drive me sorta kinda really crazy."

Angel nodded, wishing there was something that he could do to help.

"Actually," Buffy said, a confused look crossing her features, "they didn't say much about you at all. He just talked about me beating up Riley, he barely mentioned you. Kind of bizarre, I mean given how anti-demon the council is, they should have taken me off the force for even trying to help you. Not that I'm not super glad that they didn't but it seems so weird. Why would they be more worried about me fighting someone than helping out the enemy- no offence."

Angel looked up at her,

"No you're right. I've known about these guys since before they were in power, it's not normal for them to ignore something like that, unless they have a larger problem on their hands."

"Which given how things around here are at the moment seems more than a little unlikely." She said, finishing off his thought.

Buffy shrugged, deciding to worry about it later.

"Oh well, Garrison is an idiot anyway, he probably forgot to bring it up." She said flippantly, only half kidding, "Besides, I got a few weeks to think about it since I really doubt I'll be doing much else for a while."

Angel thought for a moment, an idea beginning to form his mind. Getting up, he slowly, due to his sore ankle, followed Buffy into the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, as she pulled a small tub of cookie-dough ice cream from the freezer. The two of them stood quietly as Buffy slowly devoured the yummy-goodness, hoping to forget about her bad mood for a while.

"I want to help." Angel said suddenly, stirring her from her thoughts.

"What?" she asked, almost chocking on a spoonful of ice cream.

"You said that you're not on active duty yet. When I saw you fight before, you were good but you could get a hell of a lot better. It's obvious that your trainer can't help you much with that anymore, maybe you just need a more experienced opponent. We could start whenever you want."

Buffy stared at him, her mouth hanging open slightly.

"You want to help me train? But… why? I mean… you can fight?"

Angel almost laughed at her surprised look.

"You don't live over three hundred years by being a good compromiser."

Buffy's eyes widened as his words registered in her mind.

"You-you're THREE HUNDREDyears old! Wow, that's… I mean I guessed you were older than most vamps but I didn't think that you were… wow, you're looking really good for your age!"

Angel gave her a half-smile that almost caused her knees to give out.

"So is that a 'yes'?"

Buffy's mind was thrown into almost chaos, half of her wanted to scream out 'yes!' at the thought of spending more time with him, but the other half was telling her to say no, that the temptation would be way too much for her to handle. (Three guesses which side won?)

"Ya, thanks I mean that'd be great." She looked up and gave him a weak smile. "I'd say more but my mind is still kinda spinning from the whole three hundred years old thing… you wouldn't happen to have some really strong liquor handy would you?"

Angel laughed, shaking his head as Buffy started eating her ice cream once again (now more for an excuse of her lack-of-speech than comfort food). The vampire knew he was probably in way over his head and might regret his decision once they started training. There was only so long his willpower would last if he saw her as often as he was going to have to, which would most likely end up blowing his whole plan of helping her, along with any chance of them becoming friends- or anything more (because come on, why would someone like her ever want to be with a vampire like him?).

But for now, it worked. They stood in her kitchen, a comfortable silence between them. The two were wrapped in their thoughts of what was going to happen once they begun training, but there was one fact that they were both certain of: things were going to get very interesting.

End of Chapter Nine.