Buffy sat in a metal chair, pouring over books that had been scattered around the table. It was late in the day; she had arrived at Giles' early that morning (after a very unrestful night) and they had been searching through his (rather large) collection of books, ever since. Buffy stared at the page, trying her best to concentrate on the words in front of her. It seemed like she had read this book a thousand times, and yet she still could not understand most of what she was reading. She could count on one hand how many books she'd read thoroughly in her life, it wasn't as though she was illiterate, she just would much rather be doing something else. Groaning, she pushed her current book aside and turned to her trainer.

"Giillllllllesss!" she drawled, giving him a pleading look. "This is pointless! I don't even know what I'm looking for!"

Giles gave her a weary glance,

"Buffy you know how important this is. I admit, this work is somewhat tedious but it's more than necessary."

"But come on! I mean everyone is already looking for this! The council, the demons, probably everyone in between. Why don't we just wait for them to find it?" she said, a pout crossing her face.

"Forgive me, but I feel much more comfortable with us finding the information, rather than the demons who wish to annihilate us or the berks at the council."

Admitting that he did have a point, Buffy sighed.

"Seriously though, you're totally breaking the rules here! The council told you not to snoop through these majorly boring books, so we really should put them back. I mean, those rules are there for a reason! I'd be wrong to just throw them aside because we feel like it."

Giles laughed,

"I'm sorry Buffy, it's just…. A lecture coming from you about following the 'rules of the council', is quite funny."

Buffy scowled and looked down at her abandoned book once again.

"I'm not that bad." She mumbled.

After a half-hour, Buffy gave up trying to concentrate on the book and looked up at Giles. He was madly scribbling notes on a pad of paper, going through books at lightning speed. She wasn't sure if he was anxious because he finally gets to see what secrets the council didn't want him to know, or if his frenzy truly was out of worry. She honestly didn't see why he was freaking. The idea of what Lindsay told them was unsettling, but it wasn't going to happen for a while. She knew that if she voiced her thoughts to Giles he would just tell her that she's not seeing the 'big picture'. Of course she was worried about it Lindsay's warnings, but pointless 'researching' wasn't going to make it go away. A small part of her wanted to believe that this thing (whatever it may be) would be for the best, but given what she knew of the war, the chance of that seemed slim to none. When she thought about it, things for Giles probably seemed even more grim.

In all the years she had known him, he was usually a more or less optimistic person. But as she grew older, she quickly realised how cynical he was when it came to the war. She could still remember the day she found out why. She had asked Gunn's trainer one day when she was visiting Gunn (he had been off training sick all week), if something had happened to Giles and reluctantly, he had told her. Years before she had arrived at the colony, there was an attack by a large army of demons on the council base. The council had received warning of it a few weeks prior, but at the time had brushed off the caution, since they hadn't seen anything to indicate an attack. The army was larger than anyone had expected, and even with the council's forces; a good part of the colony was severely damaged, and more than a quarter of the population had died. Giles had been at Headquarters at the time, however his wife had been killed. Buffy was surprised at this news, she didn't think Giles had ever been married, but then again, she could understand why he had never told her.

Apparently, the loss of his wife had been hard on him, not only had his outlook on the war become dismal, but she had noticed he had little tolerance for demons. She had been surprised by Giles' seemingly 'light' reaction to Angel, even though he trusted her judgement, she couldn't believe how easily he seemed to accept him. Her mind went back to when Giles had asked to talk to him alone, although Angel had seemed alright when he came out, a part of her had worried about what Giles would have said. And if he was really that accepting, why was it different with Angel?

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by a soft knock at the front door. Thankful for a distraction, Buffy quickly got up and headed to the front entrance. Yawning, she opened the door, to reveal a familiar face.

"Angel! Hi." She said, surprised that she didn't notice how late it was.

"Hi." He said, smiling a little.

Buffy stared at him for a few moments before she snapped out of her thoughts and opened the door further.

"Come in."

"Thanks." Angel said as he entered the room.

Buffy led him to the library; finally she noticed that he was carrying a small stack of books.

"What are those?" she asked curiously, as they entered the library.

"I looked through some of my books last night, I thought these might have something in them." He held the books out to Giles.

"These books are of ancient prophecies and such, yes? The council claimed they were lost in a battle several centuries ago." Giles said, surprised, as he looked over the covers.

Angel just shrugged and sat down, examining some of the books on the table.

"You've gone through these?" he asked

"Most of 'em. And they all say squat about this- whatever it is." Buffy said, somewhat grouchily.

"Yes, I'm afraid we have yet to find anything significant." Giles said distractedly.

Noticing how absorbed he was in Angel's books, Buffy stood up, a cunning smile planted on her face.

"Well Giles, you know we haven't found anything yet, and you have those really helpful books. So maybe Angel and I should go out for a quick patrol, so we don't get in your way. Check back in a couple hours?"

"Yes, of course." Giles mumbled, his eyes transfixed on the page.

Smiling, Buffy quickly grabbed Angel's hand and pulled him out of the house.

As soon as the couple made it outside, Buffy let out a deep breath.

"I don't know where you found those books but I'm eternally grateful." She said, walking towards the downtown.

"No, problem…. Where are we going?"

"Patrolling of course. You didn't think I could take advantage of, and lie to Giles in the same sentence did you?"

Angel resisted the urge to smile.

"Buffy I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Oh don't worry," Buffy said, she reached into her boots and pulled out two stakes. "See? I'm prepared. One for you and one for me."

Angel took the offered stake.

"That's not the kind of trouble I was talking about."

Buffy sighed,

"Don't worry about the council, they won't catch us."

Knowing that there was no point in arguing with her, Angel fallowed the blonde through the back streets. As they walked through the dark alleys, Buffy became all-too aware of how close Angel was staying. She was partially relieved that he wasn't too far away, since she couldn't see well in the dark, but him being that close was somewhat distracting.

Suddenly, she felt Angel's hand touch her shoulder, signalling for her to stop.

"What's wrong?" she whispered, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"You hear that?"

Buffy listened closely, the air was silent, but as she waited she heard something-footsteps. Just as she realized what they were, a figure emerged from behind the shadows, leaping towards them. Buffy and Angel quickly took defensive stances; it looked to be a dark-haired woman. She flew towards Buffy, the blonde quickly dodged the attack and turned around just in time to block a punch coming her way. Before Angel had a chance to react, Buffy kicked out at the brunette, sending her flying down the alley, and closer to the light. Buffy fallowed her, but froze as soon as her attacker came into the light.

"Faith?" she said, allowing herself to relax.

The brunette, looked from Buffy to Angel for a moment, before realization dawned on her face.

"B? Damn, I thought you and your guy here were a couple 'a vamps. Gunn said you weren't supposed to be out this late."

"Ya, well, I had a thing…. And I was going stir crazy so…."

Faith nodded,

"Ya, I get you. Just do us all a favour and be a little more careful! If somebody had seen you, you'd have a major problem. The council's been running around like crazy lately, they'd probably just have you locked up for a few months."

Buffy glanced at Angel for a moment.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Haven't you heard? Demons are starting to sneak in again. The council's been ordering us all to find them before the public find out. If news got out that our colony wasn't as locked-up-tight as it seemed, people'd go nuts over it!"

Buffy nodded, so the council knew about the demons already.

"So, who's the boy-toy?" Faith asked, looking Angel up and down. A sly smile crossed her features.

Angel looked to Buffy, his eyebrow raised slightly at Faith's words.

"Oh, um… Faith this is Angel, Angel this is Faith."

"Hey, how you doing?" Faith said, before turning back to Buffy. "So, our virgin mary finally got herself a guy?"

Buffy's face turned bright red, to the point where even in the dark; it was near impossible that Angel wouldn't notice.

"Actually, Angel and I are just friends." She said, her eyes stared at her feet.

"Ohh, sure, gotcha." Faith winked at Angel, "Well I'll leave you and your friend alone. Just do me a favour and be fast with whatever it is you're doing. There's double the warriors out there than usual."

Buffy nodded,

"I will. Thanks."

"You owe me!" Faith yelled, as she faded into the distance.

"She seems…. nice." Angel said, a smirk evident on his features.

Buffy did her best, to suppress her irrational jealousy. Faith was her (kinda) friend, but Buffy knew all too well what most guys thought of her. And "nice" was usually an understatement.

"That's Faith. Always with the nice."

"Has some interesting viewpoints too."

She needed to kill something. As in now.

"Yep, crazy girl. There's a graveyard a couple minutes from here, we should go, check it out." Not bothering to wait for him, Buffy went ahead.

Angel decided to ignore the abrupt change of subject and fallowed Buffy before she was out of his sight.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked, when he had finally caught up.

Buffy sighed and turned to face him,

"No, it's not you, I'm sorry it's just-" Buffy stared up at him, as though debating whether or not to say something. "I just didn't get much sleep last night."

She put on the best smile she could muster; her lack of sleep was part of it.

Angel nodded,

"Oh, I couldn't really sleep either."

Buffy was quiet for the rest of their trip to the graveyard. As they approached the cemetery, Buffy realised for the first time how deserted it was. She had gone on patrol loads of times, but hadn't ever been caught. True, the graveyards weren't exactly full of un-life, but she didn't ever remember seeing anyone else going through them. It was strange; in a lot of ways this graveyard felt more like home than any building she had lived in before.

Giles had always been lenient when it came to her patrols, but even with his watchful eyes, he had no idea how often she had come out here. When she was a young girl, she used to sneak out in the middle of the night, and sit up in a big oak tree in the middle of the central cemetery. It was her only real escape from the life of training she had, the one place where she could be herself.

After a few minutes of walking aimlessly between the gravestones, Buffy stopped, and looked up at Angel's questioning gaze.

"It's so weird, I haven't even known you all that long, and now… it's almost like I can't imagine you not being here. Like I've known you since I was a little kid or something."

Angel nodded, silently urging her to continue.

"Angel, I think… I mean I'm not sure because it's never really happened- to me before but…. I- I t-think… I think that I l- oooof!"

Before Buffy knew what had happened, she was tackled to the ground, her head dizzy from the blow. She looked up to see four men clothed in black robes standing around her. Several more were coming her way, and from what she could hear, Angel had his hands full as well. Struggling, she jumped onto her feet, immediately the robed men surrounded her. They all attacked at once; their blows harder than any she had ever endured before. Every time she managed to block an attack, three others seemed to come out of nowhere. She cried out as one of them hit her kneecap, causing her leg to give out. Pain shot through her body, as four of the men grabbed her arms, successfully restraining her.

Suddenly, a loud growl reached Buffy's ears. Despite the immediate throbbing it caused, her head shot up to see her companion. Angel was on his knees, he had bruises and cuts all over his body as well, and five men were crowded around him. She watched as he tried to fight them off, but there were too many for him to handle. Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw a glint moving towards him, horror shot through to her very soul as she realised that one of the men had pulled a knife. Buffy renewed her struggles, yelling out to Angel. Everything was happening so fast, so loud, voices were ringing in her skull; the throbbing of her head was so much she could barely stand it. They were too strong, she couldn't get them off, she couldn't do this, she had to do something!

Angel's shrill yell pierced through the air.

Buffy snapped.

With a thunderous cry, she lashed out, throwing her assailants off of her. As they came running towards her, she reflectively attacked, sending them to the ground. Almost blind with rage, she quickly advanced on Angel's captors, three of them came towards her, as one of them tried to land a punch, but Buffy quickly snapped his arm and threw him away. As the other two ran to her she grabbed their heads and knocked them together, sending their unconscious bodies to the ground. Jumping at the one with the knife, she grabbed his arm, causing him to fall alongside her. Struggling to get the knife away, she eventually gained the upper hand, getting on top of him; she thrust the knife, stopping only a hairsbreadth away from his neck.

"Lei fallirà." He spat, leaning his head back as he prepared for the devastating blow.

Quickly Buffy knocked her head against his, putting him out cold. Standing up, she pocketed the knife and ran over to Angel, who was sitting on the ground, with a look of shock evident on his now rigid face. This went unnoticed to Buffy as she quickly threw her arms around him, as though to reassure herself that he was there. Pulling back, she looked at him with wide eyes, her body still whirling with energy. As she tried to ask him if he was okay, one of the robed men let out a groan. The others seemed to be coming to, Buffy held Angel's arm and pulled him up.

"Giles." She said simply, her head suddenly reeled.

Angel nodded, and the two quickly began heading to Giles', hoping that they would be able to make it there before their "friends" caught up. Buffy leaned heavily against Angel, suddenly her body began to shake, her head spun. The last thing she saw was Angel's vampiric, worried, face as everything faded to darkness.

End of Chapter Fourteen.