Chapter 8

For a long silent minute Angel simply stared at Willow, Spike and Xander, who were all busy staring at each other. If he wasn't mistaken, there was an undercurrent of anger between them. He had a sudden urge to pull out his hair and run far, far away from whatever the hell he'd managed to get himself involved in.

"Look," Xander began, finally breaking the silence and turning to Angel guiltily. "I just wanted to stop by to say I'm sorry about what happened yesterday morning."

"Oh..uh, okay," Angel said, stumbling slightly over his words. He hadn't expected the young man to say that.

"I shouldn't have acted that way, but there are things you don't know," explained Xander evasively.

"We told him," Willow interrupted, cluing her old high school friend in to what Angel now knew.

"You what?" he asked slowly. "All of it? Why?"

The redhead shrugged, meeting Xander's eyes. "He deserved to know. We saw what happened at the coffee shop. If he's going to live here, he should know about what these people are like."

Xander didn't miss the hostility in her words. Another pang of guilt shot through him as he remembered everything that had happened years earlier. An image of Buffy's smiling face appeared in his mind which only served to make him feel worse.

"Xander...," Willow said softly, seeing the look on her friend's face. She knew what he was thinking about.

"Don't say it, Willow," he pleaded, holding a hand up to cease whatever she'd planned on saying.

"You know I'm right," she pushed, standing and walking toward him.

"No," Xander replied with a shake of his head. "What I know is that I abandoned my friend when she needed me the most."

"You did what you had to," Willow corrected him.

"Umm...I feel like I'm missing something," Angel interrupted, lost as to what the two were talking about.

Before explaining, Willow glanced at Xander. He gave a slight nod of his head, signaling that it was okay for her to tell Angel what they were talking about.

"We were all friends in high school," she began, once again taking a seat at the table. "Xander, Buffy and I were really close. We'd known each other since pre-school."

When Willow paused, not sure how to continue, Xander took over. "When Buffy was...was raped," he choked out the word as if it were poison. "I was on the swim team, and I was also dating Cameron Walker's sister, Faith."

"Oh," Angel breathed out heavily, sinking down onto one of the chairs nearby. He already had an idea of where this was going.

"Yeah," snorted Xander, seeing where Angel's thoughts were leading him. "Let me tell you what a fun position that was not. I was screwed no matter what I did."

"You didn't stand by her," Angel assumed, eyeing Xander with distrust.

"I did. At first, but then Faith left. As in left town. About two weeks after the...well, she was sent to the east coast to live with her Mom. She never even said goodbye, or why she left," he relayed, still feeling the sting of having lost someone he cared about.

"So you just abandoned your best friend?" Angel bit out hotly. What kind of friend would do something like that, he wondered.

"No, not from that. See, like I said, I was on the swimming team and I was pretty good. My family was poor and swimming was going to be my way to get into college," Xander explained, his voice low and sad. "My grades weren't too good so a sports scholarship was my only chance, but Cameron and the rest of the guys on the team weren't too happy with me sticking by Buffy. They started threatening me, and hassling me. That was when I started to distance myself from Buffy."

Seeing Angel's disturbed look, Xander sighed. "I know you're thinking that I should have stuck by her, no matter what. But you don't know what it was like. All I'd ever wanted was to get away from my family, to be somebody, and my only chance was hanging by a string controlled by Cameron. So I caved and all but ignored one of my best friends."

"And got to go to college," Angel deduced out loud.

A loud, unhappy laugh sounded from Xander at Angel's conclusion. "No, I didn't. I guess I pissed off Cameron too much because I was kicked off the team anyway. Some phony story was concocted about me using steroids. And, well, no college would take me on scholarship after that"

"God," Angel spat in an almost growl. "I thought this kind of shit only happened in the movies and on tv."

"You'd think so," Spike said, sighing loudly. "But that's what we've lived. Some people just like to abuse their power."

Angel slumped back in his chair, running a hand over his face. He was utterly shocked at the corruption and abuse of power that these people were telling him about. Not only had Buffy suffered immensely, possibly leading to her death, but others had as well. Though he wasn't sure he agreed with Xander's actions, they were understandable. The young man had lost his only chance to better his life. Angel wondered what revenge had been sought against Willow and Spike. They hadn't told him anything, but he knew they must have been on plenty of people's bad sides.

Just as he was about to ask Willow that question, Xander spoke again. "Did you really see her?"

"What?" Angel asked, confused by the change of direction.

"Buffy. You said you saw the ghost," he clarified.

"Oh,...OH!" Angel exclaimed loudly, jumping out of his seat. "The pictures!"

"Huh?" Spike grunted.

"Willow, did you pick up those pictures?" questioned Angel eagerly.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" she asked slowly, dazed somewhat by Angel's abrupt request.

"Can I have them?" he said instead of answering.

"Sure." Willow quickly dashed out of the room and retrieved her purse from the foyer.

Once she returned, she pulled the paper package out of the bag and handed it to Angel. He said nothing, just took the photos from her and sat down silently at the table. The others watched as he tore open the envelope and pulled the pictures out, wondering what was so important about them. Their curiosity only grew when Angel's face suddenly went pale and his eyes wide.

"Angel?" Willow spoke cautiously.

He looked up at the three friends, opened his mouth to speak, but closed it quickly. His eyes went back down to the pictures. Slowly, he pulled out three of the photos and laid them out on the table.

"Look," he told them, pointing to the pictures.

All three hurried to the table, anxious to see what had stunned Angel. Willow gasped at the images, holding a hand up to her mouth. Xander stumbled back a few steps, his eyes not wanting to believe what they were seeing. The last of the group, Spike, could only stare at pictures.

"Buffy," Spike mumbled, picking up one of the three pictures.

Each image was similar as they were all taken of the same area. The first one showed a figure, pale and barely visible, emerging from the woods that lined the beach. The second showed the same figure, this time clearly depicting a female body, standing a few feet past where she was in the first. And in the third and final picture, it showed her standing along the waterline, staring out at the ocean.

In the last two, it was clear as day that the mysterious thing Angel had seen on the beach was a person, a female with blonde hair. Just like Buffy. Though none of them could make out any facial features or anything else to make a clear identification, the other similarities to the missing girl were striking.

"It m-might not be h-her," Willow stuttered, finding it hard to face something she'd only heard rumors about.

"Is...is that the g-ghost?" Xander asked in equal shock.

"I don't think that's a ghost," alleged Angel. Logical reasoning told him such things as ghosts didn't exist. But even so, the figure was too clear, and if he wasn't mistaken, she was wearing something different than the first time he'd seen her. Ghosts didn't change their close...did they?

Xander's head whipped around to face Angel. "What are you saying?"

"It might be her. Buffy might not be dead," said Willow, finally voicing the suspicion that she and Spike had had for quite some time.

"Oh boy," Xander muttered, stumbling over to one of the chairs.

"This doesn't prove anything," Spike pointed out the obvious.

"No, but it's the first clue we've had as to what happened to her, and I'm not going to forget about it," Willow stated firmly.

"Willow...," Spike said cautiously.

"Don't say it!" she hissed at him. "I'm not just gonna push it out of my mind. This has gone on too long!"

"Do you really want to stir this up again, Will?" asked Xander, facing his long-time friend. "Don't you remember what it was like before?"

Willow crossed her arms over her chest and glared at both Spike and Xander. "I'm not saying we go running around telling what's in these pictures," she jabbed a finger toward them. "But I want to know if this is really Buffy. I NEED to know if this is her."

"What do you want to do?" Angel spoke up for the first time in a while.

"Angel," Willow said, tilting her head slightly as she looked at him. "Why are you getting involved in this?

"I...I don't know, honestly. I want to help, though," he pleaded, thinking about the picture of Buffy he'd seen and of all she'd been through. If he could do something for her, he would. That was the right thing to do, wasn't it?

"Are you sure, mate?" Spike inquired. He knew they were about to start some serious trouble, but he also knew he needed to do whatever possible for Buffy. They were friends, after all. "If people find out we're lookin' in to this it could start a lot of shit."

Angel gazed down at the photographs on the table, taking in the solitary figure standing on the beach. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Count me in," Xander added. He hadn't done what he should have years ago. Now, he might have the chance to make up for it. If he could help Buffy, he would.

"Well, now that that is settled, anyone got any ideas?" Spike posed with a frown, wondering what the hell they were supposed to do now.

Glancing down at the pictures, Angel thought for a moment. "Well, first I'm going to try to find a dark room to use tomorrow." At the perplexed looks from the other, he clarified. "I'm going to see if I can blow up, and crop these three so maybe you guys can tell for sure if it is her."

"It is," Willow stated definitively. "I know it is."

Later that night, Angel sat at his desk staring at his laptop. His fingers tapped over the keys as he searched through the internet trying to find information on the murder of Buffy's family. He figured if he was going to get involved in this, he might as well get all the information straight. He no longer bothered to question his sanity about his involvement. It was too late to back himself out now.

Angel considered looking for an online archive of the local newspaper, but knowing how loyalties in this town ran he figured they might not be the most objective. So instead he decided to try looking up newspaper archives from Los Angeles. Sunnydale was close enough to LA that there had probably been coverage in the LA papers. He wasn't sure, though, that he'd find anything since the murders had happened four years earlier, but it was worth a try.

Almost immediately, he found several articles matching his search criteria. Clicking on the first link, he read the article that appeared on the screen.

"Local police in Sunnydale, California have officially closed the case of a triple murder that occurred there four weeks ago. On July 19, the bodies of three people; Joyce Giles, 48, Owen Giles, 19, and Dawn Giles, 16, were found brutally stabbed to death in their home. A fourth occupant of the house, Buffy Giles, 20, has been missing since the homicides.

After a thorough investigation, police have come to the conclusion that the case is a murder-suicide committed by the Giles' eldest child, Buffy. Townspeople interviewed stated that Buffy was a mentally unstable young woman, and none seemed surprised by the recent tragic turn of events. It is suspected that Buffy Giles killed her family and then jumped from the nearby cliffs to her death in the rocky ocean below..."

"Buffy Giles?" Angel murmured out loud, gaping at his computer screen.

Buffy's last name was Giles? As in Rupert Giles, his boss? Angel thought this situation couldn't shock him anymore, but this newest piece of information had him completely and utterly stunned.

TBC