Disclaimer: All Characters belong to J.W, and the plot is model after Jane Austin's novel Pride and Prejudice

ThankYou to Christine my wonderful beta! If it wasn't for her this chapter would be much shorter and without the B/A scene.

A Week after the Fundraiser

Chapter Ten

'What a wonderful week,' Buffy declared to herself one afternoon while sitting in a café. The fundraiser she'd planned for months was so successful it brought in close to a million dollars for the center. Everyone she met had nothing but praise to say about the event and no one seem the wiser about her sister Faith's drunken escapades at the lake. With the money from the fundraiser the center can hire several additions to the staff. Currently Buffy was enjoying a cup of mocha while surveying applications from prospective art teachers that Robin had given to her to look through.

"Hard at work I see."

Startled by the voice, Buffy looked up to find Angel staring at her with his deep dark eyes. 'Just great and the day was going so well,' thought Buffy as she took in Angel's appearance. Dressed in a tailor-made black Armani suit, Angel looked like he had stepped out of a GQ magazine. 'Oh why does a snob like him have to be so good looking, I feel just down right frumpy next to him.'

"Hello Angel, how are you today?"

"I'm good thank you for asking. May I join you?"

Knowing it would be rude not to Buffy nodded in agreement. "I'm surprised to see you here Angel, I didn't think cafes were your scene?"

"They're not usually, but I just came from a long business meeting and needed some coffee, when I saw you I thought I would say hi." In reality, while walking to his car after the meeting, Angel had been struck dumb by the sight of Buffy in the café window. There was nothing special about the scene, Buffy casually dressed in a tank top and Capri pants with her hair in a ponytail, was simply sitting at the table deep, in thought chewing on a pen. Yet Angel couldn't take his eyes off her, he was mesmerized by every little detail from what she wore to the facial expressions she made. Unable to stop him self, Angel entered the café and walked towards Buffy.

Now he was regretting that impulse. Angel's mind was blank; he couldn't think of a single thing to talk about now that he was sitting close enough to Buffy to smell the light hint of vanilla on her.

Not liking the awkward silence, Buffy spoke. "I can understand the need for caffeine after a long day. I know coffee's the only thing that keeps me going some days when everything's just hectic. I'm surprised to hear you had to work today, I thought you were here on vacation?"

"No I'm still working while I stay in Sunnydale. With technology as it is now I can take my work with me anywhere."

"You must have a wonderful and understanding staff back at your office."

Thinking about his loyal staff, who are more like family than employees, brought a smile to Angel's face making him even more handsome. Buffy was glad Angel didn't smile often or else she would be in trouble. "Yes, I do. I've come to depend on my staff a great deal, not knowing what I would do with out them. I use to be such a workaholic that I lost touch with my surroundings like my family and friends. When I realized how far gone I was, I started too trust my staff more and began delegating my work. Since then things have never been better, everyone's more productive and happy."

Angel's voice held such respect for his staff, that Buffy couldn't help but admire him, which helped soften some of her opinions about Angel. Conversation began to flow more smoothly as each talked about their respective jobs. Buffy soon learned that Angel came from old money with his father's family being in pharmaceutics while his mother's was in publishing. After several years of trying to run both companies, Angel decided to leave his father's company in the hands of a Board of Trustees, while focusing all his energy into his mother's publishing company, Pemberley Books. Angel in turn felt a kindred spirit with Buffy when she revealed that her parents expected her to take over the Mystical World though her true passion was the Center.

When talk turned to the Center, the Fundraiser of course came up. This time Angel conveyed his thoughts about the enchantment of the evening. Buffy was flattered. Things were going well until Angel brought up Faith's drunkenness.

"Excuse me, where did you hear about that?" asked Buffy with narrowing eyes.

"Well the bartender, I think he called him self Whistler. He said that your intoxicated sister made you leave the fundraisers early each year. I really think you should address your sister's alcohol problems as soon as possible before it gets out of hand." Angel replied in an authoritative voice.

Raising her voice, Buffy responded, "Thank you for your concern, but it's unwarranted. Faith doesn't have a problem."

Angel did not back down. "How can you say that? She must have been drinking since she was fourteen or fifteen. I know I would never let my sister continue on such a troubling path."

"Then it's good that Faith's my sister and not yours." Buffy waited until both of them had a moment to cool down a bit before speaking again. "I understand your concerns, but you must know underage drinking happens, it's hard to avoid. That's why it's more important to teach about drinking responsibly. Faith knows not to binge drink and that she shouldn't drive after drinking, and that's why I drive her home after the fundraisers."

Knowing he should end the discussion, but Angel couldn't resist adding, "Yet she still drinks enough to cause scenes."

Buffy agreed with him there. While Faith's drunken scenes were usually minor and un-harmful to anyone but herself, they were a great source of embarrassment for Buffy. Not wanting Angel to know how close that last fact stung her, Buffy got up to leave. "Though that's true, they are usually quite insignificant. Well the afternoon seems to have gone right by, I should head home."

"Oh your right, let me drive you home."

Buffy declined stating that she enjoyed walking home. The two said good bye and headed in separate directions. Both had enjoyed the afternoon conversation immensely, but knew it had not ended well.

The Next Day at Oz's House

"No, no, no, absolutely not!" Ranted Darla. "You just spent everyday of the past week with Willow, there's no need to bring her with us for the Columbus Day weekend trip to the beach house."

'I need aspirin,' thought Oz as he listened to his sister's loud protests. After letting Darla go on for a few more minutes with no signs of the rant stopping anytime soon, Oz finally sighed and said, "Willow's my girlfriend and I want to spend time with her at my beach house. Now Darla did you hear the keywords in that sentence: 'my girlfriend' and 'my beach house' so that means I can invite her if I want, that also means I can un-invite anyone I want, too. Do you understand me, Darla?"

Fuming Darla could not believe her brother would choose his girlfriend over his sister, deciding to back down for the moment; she just nodded and left the game room. In her hurry she bumped into Angel and Gunn on her way out. "Where have you guys been? Never mind you have to go in there and talk some sense into my brother, he won't listen to me." With that Darla left.

"What was that about?" asked Gunn.

"You know how Darla is. She's just upset that I invited Willow to the beach house with us. I'm glad I didn't tell her Buffy was coming, too, or Darla would have blown a gasket. Darla's seemed to have developed a great dislike towards Buffy."

"Why is Buffy coming too?" asked Angel unable to hide the anxiety from his voice.

Oz and Gunn looked at him kind of funny, amused by Angel's sudden nervousness. "I invited Buffy along so Willow has someone there to support her, you know how my sisters can be as Darla has just shown us. But why do you care, I thought you and Buffy were getting along now."

Trying to act as normal as possible Angel replied, "We are. The last few times we've talked things have gone well. I even had a lovely conversation with her yesterday, though it could have ended better." Not wanting his friends to question him about the misunderstanding he decided to redirect the conversation.

"So things must be going well with you and Willow. You guys have been inseparable since the fundraiser, and now you're inviting her on vacation with you. Don't you think things are moving a bit fast? Look at Gunn he's not always with Fred and certainly not inviting her to go on vacation with him."

"Hey man, don't bring me into this. I would ask Fred to come too if I knew she would, but she's been busy researching for her thesis project, so I don't think they are going fast at all."

"That's great," said Oz, "I'm happy that at least one of my friend's understands what's it like to be in love and to always be with the person."

"Love? You're in love?" asked a startled Angel.

'This is serious. I've never heard him use that word with any of his other girlfriends. Is he going to ask Willow to marry him? I know Oz wants to settle down and start a family, it's a big reason why he bought this house, but he has only known Willow for little while. How does he know she's not only after his money? She is only a public school teacher and they don't make a lot of money. But Willow doesn't seem mercenary; of course the best ones have the innocent façade. Okay I'm getting carried away, so he says he's in love, that doesn't automatically mean marriage and Willow might just be the one for him. Oz knows what he's doing and it's not like I really know much about love, so I should be a friend and show my support.' As Angel came out of his thoughts, he realized that Oz had been going on about why he is in love and decided to stop him.

"That's great Oz, if she makes you happy I'm happy for you. And I've noticed that you have been extremely happy the last week, so I'm guessing that thing that Willow had to talk to you about was that she loves you too right?"

"Actually that's not what we talked about at all."

"It wasn't?" Angel and Gunn both asked at the same time surprised.

Not noticing at all Oz just answered, "Well we did talk about our feelings a bit, but mostly the night was spent talking about one of Willow's past relationships."

"Wait! What? You're telling us you've been happy this past week because you guys were talking about your girl's ex? That makes no sense," said a confused Gunn. Angel just nodded in agreement.

Shooting his friends 'You're stupid look,' Oz said, "No of course not, I'm happy because Willow finally opened up to me. Since the beginning of our relationship I've always felt that she had been keeping me at arms-length, but now I feel like she really wants to make our relationship work. I understand and feel so much closer to Willow now, it's just amazing."

"Well I'm happy for you then, so what do you understand about Willow better now?" asked Angel.

While happy to have his friends' support, Oz wasn't sure what he should say about what Willow had told him. 'Should I tell them? What if they don't understand? Willow did say most people couldn't wrap their minds around the notion that she's a bisexual, but Angel and Gunn are open-minded…most of the time. Maybe I should tell them but leave out the part that Willow was involved with a woman.'

Finally deciding, Oz chose his words very carefully. "Well now I know why Willow was so wary of starting a new relationship. She was hurt badly by how her last relationship ended. She was deeply in love several years ago, so much so that she had expected to spend the rest of her life with that person. Unfortunately fate was against them and Willow's lover was killed before her eyes."

Both Angel and Gunn were shocked at this news and spoke at the same time. "My God that's horrible!" "What happened? Did they ever catch the guy?"

"I know and they did catch the guy, but you guys haven't even heard the worst part," said Oz as he tried to keep a calm and steady voice but couldn't as he remembers how distraught Willow became barely getting out the next part in the story. "The guy had been hired by Willow's lover's family to kill Willow since they didn't approve of the relationship. It was only because Willow had bent down to pick up a dropped book at that exact moment that the guy shot the wrong target. Willow still blames herself."

Silence. No one spoke as they all tried to understand how such a sad and tragic tale could be connected to the sweet and gentle Willow they had all come to know. Beloved by family, friends, and students alike, Willow's kind and generous heart seem to touch everyone. It was inconceivable to imagine that someone hated Willow enough to want her dead. Yet someone did, luckily Willow lived, though she lived on with a broken-heart filled with guilt.

After some time had past Oz spoke again. "I know you guys know better than to mention any of this to Willow or her family, but if it ever comes up, know that everyone refers to it as "the accident" and nothing else."

"Why?" asked Gunn.

"That's because in the beginning they all really thought it was an accident. The two of them had been out camping in the woods with some friends and had decided to take a walk together. Everything happened so fast and since Willow was in no state to say anything at the time that everyone assumed at first that it had been a hunting accident, since hunters were known to find sport in the area. It wasn't until after the police investigation came out did they find out what really happen, by then it was less painful for everyone to just refer to it as "the accident" rather than dwell on the fact that it was a murder plot. Joyce goes further and even pretends the entire incident never happened."

Bewildered Angel said, "But how could she pretend a major aspect of her daughter's life never happened?"

"Oh I'm not saying that Joyce was insensitive to Willow's grief," said Oz as he tried to remember what Willow had exactly said about her mother. "Willow told me her mother's love and support was instrumental in helping her move forward with her life. But…since then Joyce has avoided any mention of "the accident" or even the relationship. Willow attributes this to the fact that Joyce had never believed the relationship would last."

"Wow, what was so bad about this relationship that both families didn't approve?" said Gunn.

"Hey don't even place Joyce in the same league as those people!" Oz cried out.

"Sorry man that's not what I meant. I was just curious about this relationship that irked everyone."

Oz nodded in understanding as he tried to think about how to address the question. 'What to say? Should have known they would be inquisitive… I should just tell them what would be the harm…but I don't want them to form any prejudices against Willow before really getting to know her. I'll tell them in the future. For now I'll just plead ignorance.' "I can't say myself since all my info is from Willow who was deeply in love so only saw it all as a strong lasting relationship."

After sometime had past while the three were playing a game of darts Angel asked a question that had been bothering him for sometime. "After all that she disclosed to you how could you be so happy? Yeah I get that you're happy that she finally opened up to you, but still doesn't it scare you?" At Oz look he elaborated, "I just mean Willow was in a very committed relationship with someone she clearly loved deeply, aren't you afraid of not measuring up? Competing for her affections with a ghost?"

"Well thank you Mr. Gloom for bringing me down," said Oz a quite miffed. "So what if Willow was once in a serious relationship, that has no barring on the present and it would be stupid to try to compare myself with a ghost. The two relationships are complete separate issues."

"Calm down Oz," interjected Gunn, "I think that Angel just wants you to think things through before things get too serious. I do too."

"Don't worry; I know what I'm doing. So worry less about my love life and pay more attention to your own."

Before the guys could retort, Lindsey came stormed in, lookingdisheveled. "Thank you so much for ruining my afternoon. Daniel Osborne what in the hell did you do your sister! Me and Dru were just heading out for a walk together for some alone time, when Darla appeared ranting about your ill treatment of her. Of course Drusilla had to comfort her sister and what does comfort mean…shopping. Then I got dragged along because who else could carry their bags and offer a male opinion which they really didn't want. I'm a lawyer not a bellhop for goodness sake!" By now the others were laughing there heads off. "What it's not funny!"

After Oz apologized to Lindsey for inadvertently ruining his afternoon and promising to keep Darla occupied all of the next day, the four men spent the rest of the day in the game room playing pool and hiding from the sisters.

Note:

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, at first I was planning for Tara to have died in an accident, but decided to keep her death similar to the way she died on the show. Tara's family was so awful on the show that I didn't think it would be a stretch that they would not like to have a lesbian daughter. But since I had called it an accident several chapters ago I came up with the contrived hunting accident portion of this chapter hope it's not too odd. Please send feedback! Criticism welcomed as long as it's constructive.