Chapter 19

The question caught Buffy completely by surprise. What's up with you and Angel? She whipped her head around and stared at her friend. The redhead, for her part, was staring right back at Buffy, waiting for an answer. The problem, though, was that Buffy didn't have an answer, or even a smidgen of an answer. Or even a clue as to why Willow would ask such a thing.

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked warily.

Willow raised one slim, red eyebrow and leaned on the table. "I think it was a fairly straight forward question."

"But...I...but...," Buffy sputtered.

"Oh come on, Buffy," Willow butted in. "I've seen the way your look at him, act around him, and he's the same way."

"You're imaging things," denied Buffy.

That was a flat-out lie, Buffy knew. There did seem to be something between her and Angel. At least from her end. Angel was the sweetest guy she'd ever met. He'd done so much for her for no reason other than he was nice. He believed in her when very few other people did. What was there not to like about him? And it didn't hurt that he was drop-dead gorgeous.

"I don't think I am," Willow chirped.

The attraction between the two was quite obvious to Willow. When Angel had walked into the room moments earlier, Buffy had all but melted in her chair at the sight of him. And Angel, well, stared at Buffy as if he could have eaten her alive. Buffy could deny it all she wanted, but Willow knew there was something there.

What Willow didn't know, was whether this attraction between them was a good thing, or a bad thing. Buffy had been through so much in her life already. She didn't want to see her friend get hurt again. But Angel wouldn't hurt her, would he? No, she didn't think so. At least not intentionally. Maybe getting involved with Angel would be good for Buffy. It was something to think about. And maybe she'd talk to Spike about it, see what he thought.

"He's definitely a hottie," Willow stated mildly, and easily saw the blush creep up Buffy's cheeks. Uh huh, and Buffy claimed there wasn't any interest. Whatever.

Thankfully for Buffy, Angel's footsteps coming back down the stairs kept Willow from pushing any further. "I better get some plates for the pizza," she said and practically jumped out of her chair.

Still, Willow watched the two of them. And when Angel entered the room and smiled when he saw Buffy moving around the kitchen as if it were her own, she had even further proof that the interest went both ways. But for now, she would let it go.

The group soon settled in to eat the pizza Angel had brought home with him. Conversation was casual, focusing on none of the trouble's that surrounded them. Buffy couldn't have found the event any more pleasant.

For a long four years, her life had been spent mostly alone. She'd done nothing, and had nobody. Well, her father had been there, but the situation between them had been anything but normal. And even if it had been, having her father around was nothing like spending an evening with her friends.

She'd missed Willow terribly while Giles had had her secluded in the attic apartment of their house. After her family had been...killed...and her friends had vanished out of her life, she'd thought they wanted nothing more to do with her. Not that Buffy could have blamed them if that was the case. Her friendship with Willow, Spike and Xander had led to so much trouble for them. If the murders had been the last straw for them and they'd backed away, she would have had to accept it.

Now, though, Buffy knew the truth. They hadn't abandoned her. Because of a lie her father had perpetrated, they had believed her dead. The thought angered her, but she wasn't yet ready to face what he had done. What mattered was that she knew now why they hadn't been around for four years. And what was even more important, Buffy knew that they still believed in her, that they were still her friends. It made her grateful to have such special people in her life.

All too soon for Buffy, dinner was over and Willow had to get home before Spike began to worry about her. She walked Willow to the door, holding her friend's hand tightly. In the foyer, Willow turned and hugged Buffy, holding on slightly longer than normal.

"I'm so glad you came to see me today," Buffy told her.

"Me too," Willow agreed. "I promise to come by often."

Angel, who had followed them out of the kitchen, leaned against the railing of the staircase. "You're welcome to come by anytime," he said to Willow. "Spike and Xander, too."

"Thanks, Angel." Willow paused, chewed hesitantly on her lower lip. With a sigh, she decided to spit out what was on her mind. "I didn't want to say anything earlier, but I started trying to get the information about...everything...from the Sunnydale PD's computer files."

Instantly alert, Angel took a step toward Willow. They needed this information if they were to help clear Buffy's name. "Did you find anything?"

"I didn't have time to try much," Willow answered. "I just started poking around to get an idea of the security and encryption. I don't think I'll have much trouble getting into their files, though."

"That's good," Angel said with a nod. "You'll let me know when you have something? I don't want to call my friend until we have all we can possibly get."

"I will. I'm going to work on it tomorrow," assured Willow as she glanced down at her watch. "Oh! I better go before Spike freaks. Thanks for dinner!"

From the doorway leading into the living room, Angel watched as Buffy sat on the floor and played with Shadow. She was laughing and smiling, swishing the kitten's feather toy around. It warmed his heart to see her doing something so normal. If he didn't know about her past, he would have thought she was just a regular girl. Which, really, she was. She had just been through hell.

The difference in Buffy in only a short period of time was amazing. When he had first seen her at Giles' house, she'd been silent and non-responsive. Not surprising, Angel thought. She had been kept secluded for four long years. But since the secret Giles had kept since the murders had been revealed, Buffy had come out of her shell. There were still shadows cast over her, but he could see some of her old glory being recaptured. It made him wonder what she had been like before everything had happened, before the rape.

When she looked up and smiled at him, Angel felt the increasingly familiar pounding of his heart. Her smile was so beautiful. And he loved seeing it, loved that she smiled at him. What would have happened, he wondered, if he had met her years before?

"Hey," Buffy greeted him.

"Hey," he returned. "Shadow seems to be having a good time."

"Yeah," she grinned, lifting the feather toy up in the air which made the kitten raise up on her hind legs to reach it.

"So...umm," Angel fumbled slightly. "I thought maybe...that we could watch a movie or something."

"That sounds like-." Fun, she had meant to say, but a knock at the door cut her off.

Angel frowned. He wasn't expecting anyone. And with Buffy staying with him, he had to be careful. "I'll see who it is. Stay in here, okay?" he asked.

Buffy nodded her head and Angel walked out into the foyer. A peek out the side window made him groan. It was Giles. He knew Buffy's father had every right to stop by to see how his daughter was doing, but he knew it wouldn't be easy for her. It would certainly wipe the simple smile off her face. Unfortunately, Angel knew that Giles needed to know what was going on so he had to let the man in.

"Good evening, Angel," Giles greeted. "I was, um, hoping I may speak with Buffy."

Instinct warred with what was right. Angel wanted to tell the man to go away. Buffy had been having such a nice evening, but that would certainly end with a visit from her father. He couldn't tell Giles to go away, though. So he nodded his head and led the older man into the living room where Buffy was waiting.

"Buffy?" Angel said as he entered the room. "Your father is here." As expected, the smile left her face instantly, and she said nothing in response.

"Buffy, how are you?" Giles asked, walking up to her.

"Fine," she answered tightly, her whole body tense.

"Good, good." Giles nodded, shifted nervously. "I was, umm, hoping that you would be ready to come home."

Home. That one word meant almost nothing to Buffy. Her father's house wasn't home. It had stopped being home the night she'd awoken to find her family murdered. It had stopped being home four years earlier when her father had tucked her away in the attic apartment, telling her she couldn't leave. At one time, that house had been her home, the place where she'd run wild with her siblings and grown from a child to a young woman. But it wasn't home anymore. It would never be home again.

"No, I'm not," she told him firmly. "I'm going to stay here at Angel's." The second the words were out of her mouth, Buffy looked uneasily at Angel, realizing what she'd said. What if he didn't want her to stay here? But his smile assured her that she was welcome.

"Oh." Giles frowned, glanced from his daughter to Angel. "Are you sure that is wise, Buffy, given the circumstances?"

She hadn't forgotten her circumstances, but her father's statement brought them to the forefront of her mind. Seeing Giles standing there, expecting her to just follow along and return to her cell made anger boil within her. Anger at everything. The feeling was relatively new to Buffy. For so long she had just taken everything, sat back while her life fell apart around her. Well, she was damn tired of being a victim. The last week or so, since her friends and Angel had shown up in her attic rooms, had shown her what her life could be like: normal. She could visit with her friends, have actual conversations, watch a movie, play with a kitten. She could just be Buffy. There was no way she could go back to living in the solitary bubble her father had, inadvertently or not, placed her in.

"My circumstances?" she parroted, standing to face her father directly. "You mean the fact that you think that I...that I..." she stumbled over her words, hardly able to say them aloud. "That I killed Mom and Dawn and Owen?"

The night before, she'd had a hard time accepting everything, what her father believed, the blank spots in her memory, her friends and Angel's belief in her innocence. But now that it had all had time to sink in, she knew...she knew - despite her empty memory of that night – that she could not have killed her family. They meant everything to her; she loved them. There was just no way she could have killed them. She may not know what really happened, but she knew that her friends were right, she just couldn't have done it.

"How could think I killed them," she whispered, near tears.

"Buffy," Giles said with a sigh. He'd had a long time to deal with this, a long time to face everything that had happened. Buffy hadn't. "I know it is difficult to understand or accept what-."

"NO!" Buffy all but shouted at him. "I did not do it!"

At this point, Angel decided it would be best if he stepped in. He didn't want the situation between Giles and Buffy to get any worse than it already was. "She's right, Giles. She didn't kill them."

"But...but...," Giles stuttered, completely not expecting Angel's support of Buffy's innocence. "I don't understand. I found her that night. I saw the note," he went on, referring to the note that Buffy had supposedly left after killing her family.

"I've been looking over all of the information I could find on the crime scene, and there's no way Buffy could have done it." Angel left out the fact that from the beginning, from the first time he had heard the story from Willow and Spike, he had not been able to imagine Buffy killing her family. He didn't think Giles would understand that.

"But the police...they investigated," Giles pointed out.

An unexpected laugh erupted from Buffy at the very idea of the Sunnydale police investigating something to do with her honestly. Ever since she had accused the police chief's son of raping her, she had become public enemy number one. It was by no way a stretch of the imagination to believe they would falsify information to make her guilty of not one, but three murders.

Angel didn't respond to Giles comment about the police, nor Buffy's sardonic laughter. Instead, he walked over to the book shelf and picked up the file he had placed there the night before. He approached Giles, handed him the papers. "This is everything I have put together."

Taking the folder hesitantly, wondering what in the world could be inside, Giles barely held back from glaring at Angel. What kinds of thoughts was this man, his new employee and the person he was reluctantly entrusting the safety of his daughter to, putting into Buffy's head? Four long years of believing his daughter guilty could not just be pushed aside on a single person's say so. He'd seen the note, seen Buffy. He'd lived with the reality since then. Still, he opened the folder and began reading the pages with Angel's notes written on them.

A minute passed, then two, as Giles read over the papers. Angel could see the man's face grow pale even in the dim light of the room. Giles was obviously beginning to understand the full implications of all that Angel had found out.

The sheets fluttered to the floor unheeded after Giles had finished. He sank down into the nearest chair and yanked his glasses off. His head fell into his hands as he tried to fight off a thousand pulsing emotions. The truth was clear as day now, the very harsh truth that contradicted everything he had believed.

"Dear Lord," he mumbled into his hands. Slowly, he raised his head and looked at Buffy who was standing very still a few feet away. "Buffy...I...I am so sorry. I...I don't know what to say."

Her father's anguish resonated deeply within Buffy. She wanted to go to him, to hug him, but she just couldn't do it. How was she supposed to push aside the last four years as if they never existed, as if he hadn't believer her a murderer and virtually locked her in a cell? She couldn't. The hurt was just too strong. So she remained where she was, silently watching her father from a distance.

Angel saw Buffy's indecision and hurt for her. He knew the two needed to talk. Eventually. But right now, it was too soon, emotions were too close to the surface, and Buffy wasn't yet ready to deal with Giles on that level. So he went with the next item of importance.

"This can't go on, Giles. Something needs to be done about the police and mayor here in Sunnydale," he stated emphatically. Giles, however, was not listening.

"Don't you see!" Giles said, leaping out of his chair. "This is all the more reason to return home! If they find out you're alive, who knows what they will do to you!"

Buffy's mouth dropped open in shock. After all that he had learned, her father still wanted to banish her to her attic rooms. Her innocence didn't matter at all. "No," she whispered brokenly, backing away from him.

A hand lightly grasped her should and Buffy looked up to find that Angel had come to stand next to her. His eyes were sympathetic and reassuring, helping her to push back the blinding fear that had arisen after her father's proclamation. She took a deep breath, stiffened her shoulders. "I'm not going back there, Daddy."

"Buffy, please," Giles implored. "It's not safe for you!"

"Am I just supposed to spend the rest of my life hiding on the top floor of our house?" she asked sadly.

"I'll...I'll send you to England, or Italy," Giles posed desperately. Buffy had to see the danger in staying in a town where the police had all but framed her for murder. "You always wanted to travel!"

"You know that's not the answer, Giles," Angel interrupted, his hand still resting lightly on Buffy's shoulder. "She'll never be free unless the truth, all of the truth, comes out, and those responsible are made to pay for what they've done."

"Buffy, please," Giles tried again. "You have to see what kind of danger you are in."

He was right, Buffy knew that. She was in danger. What really happened the night her family was killed was still a mystery, but it was becoming clearer and cleared that the police had had some involvement. If they knew about her...she shuddered. She didn't want to think about what would happened then. But Angel was right as well. If she ever wanted to be free, to live her life again, she had to face it. All of it.

"I can't, Daddy," she said softly, tiredly, and turned, walking out of the room without looking back.

Giles watched her leave, fighting the urge to grab her and race back home with her. His shoulders sank as he faced Angel once more. "I hope you know what you are doing."

"I do," Angel stated firmly. He proceeded to explain to Giles what he intended to do with the new information, how Willow was trying to access the police files, and about his friend with the FBI who he planned to enlist to help.

"I don't agree with this," Giles said once Angel had finished.

"It's her choice," Angel responded. "It's what she wants – needs – to do."

Sighing loudly, Giles pivoted and began to exit the room. At the doorway, he paused and turned to Angel. "I'm trusting you to protect her, Angel."

"I'll do whatever I can to keep her safe," Angel assured him. And he would do anything and everything to make sure no harm came to Buffy.

He just hoped that would be enough.

TBC