Hey guys! Sorry I took long... AGAIN! I just had to do a little thinking about my writing. You see, I got this one bad review that basically told me not to write anymore 'cause I sucked. And that kinda got me thinking if I should do this anymore, because I didn't get a lot of feedback either. Then I asked Christine for some advice, and now I'm good. To that person... I'm not gonna stop writing 'cause it's just a hobby. You made it sound like I was doing it professionally. I know I'm not the best writer in the world, but oh well, I still got some ppl who like my fics, and that's all I need. Anyways... Thanks for the good reviews, and a special thank you to Christine for helping me out. Enjoy!
"With Some Scoobies on the Side Series"
By: Lynn
DISCLAIMERS: Duh guys! Nothing's mine!
DISTRIBUTION: You ask me, I ask you... you know the process. This is a re-write of most of the Angel episodes with the Scoobies in the mix. Whoohoo! This is gonna be fun!
SPOILERS: I guess the beginning of Ats.
A/N: Okay, so during the Ascension thing, Angel didn't tell Buffy he wasn't saying goodbye, and the whole "one last look by the fire trucks" thing didn't happen. And Faith didn't go all psycho. In my story, her association with the mayor was just a decoy.
"Lonely Hearts"
Part 2
With barely a night's rest, all of the gang were holed up in the office the whole day. Oz had joined them when the sun rose, but as soon as dusk approached, he had to ditch them for the underground cave.
Cordelia sat in front of the computer, while Xander, Doyle, Willow, and Buffy searched through some newspapers. They all stared at Angel dumbly when he dropped more in front of them.
"This is completely whacked, man," Doyle said, frustrated, "I don't even know what I'm looking for anymore."
Angel went to stand behind Cordelia. "You're looking for any events in and around that bar," he answered.
"Okay, I'm in the news group search engine," Cordy declared, "Now what is the name of that place again?"
"D'Oblique," Willow supplied, "Capital D, apostrophe, o-b-l-i-"
"Not so fast," Cordy stopped her, her eyes down on the keyboard, "Okay, Capital D... apostrophe, apostrophe, apostrophe," she searched the different keys for the symbol she needed. Computer science wasn't really her best class in high school. "-oh, I got it. Okay. Now what's after that again?"
There was suddenly a collective group of groans and sighs of frustration. Willow got up from the couch, and decided to be the computer whiz hero. Why she wasn't sitting in Cordelia's place in front of the computer was beyond her.
"You know, I need a break. Let me- ah- let me get in here," Willow took over the computer and typed in what they needed.
"Gotta love Will and her computer skills," Buffy commented from her seat in front of the desk, watching as Willow typed with expert speed.
"Hello! We've got two hits," Doyle exclaimed when the results pooped up not long after. Buffy and Xander made their way behind the desk and squeezed in, so they could see what they got.
Willow clicked on the first one.
"Look at that," Buffy said when they saw the article, and started to read it out loud, "Search continues for Heather Nolan. Missing since late last month, the twenty-four-year-old paralegal that vanished after leaving downtown bar called D'Oblique."
"Missing girl. That sounds a little more up your alley," Cordelia commented, looking up at Angel.
"What's the second one say," Angel asked Willow.
"Badly mutilated body found in the dumpster nearly three weeks ago, described by the coroner's office as eviscerated, has been positively identified as that of twenty-eight-year-old Martin Haber, last seen with an unidentified female companion at D'Oblique, a trendy singles establishment," Willow read.
"That's it then. Probably a lot more disappearances that the press hasn't traced back to the bar yet."
"So, we got a missing girl and a stiff," Xander commented.
"An eviscerated stiff," Buffy counteracted. She made eye contact with Angel and he nodded, reading her mind. As Angel grabbed their coats, the slayer dished out orders to the others, "Go downstairs and use the library. Try to narrow down a list of eviscerating demons, ones that might have reason to pray on young singles."
"Where are you going," Cordelia wondered.
"To the bar," Angel answered, "To see if we can meet a killer."
Angel and Buffy walked in comfortable silence to D'Oblique. As they approached the bar, Buffy felt one of her practical, yet stylish boots come loose. She looked down and noticed that her laces had come loose.
Not knowing that Buffy had stopped to tie her shoe, Angel kept on walking... right into a smaller body.
"Oh excuse me," Angel apologized. He looked up and found out it was the blonde woman from the night before.
"Well, hello," she greeted.
"Hi... Kate. Uh, I'm glad to see you again."
Buffy snapped up after she was done with her shoe. She immediately noticed that Angel was talking to that desperate blonde woman again. Knowing that their conversation would most likely be no use to her, she straightened up and walked right passed them as if she was just another stranger going into the bar. She felt Angel's eyes on her the whole time, as well as Kate's, but she continued on like she didn't notice them.
"Really...," Kate said a little skeptically, remembering how cozy he was with the blonde that just walked by them last night.
Angel pulled his gaze back to Kate. "Yeah... I owe you an apology... for last night."
"You don't owe me anything."
"No, it was rude."
"Okay, then...," a small smile spread on her face, "maybe you can buy me a drink and we can start fresh."
Angel frowned at that. "I'm not sure you should go in there tonight."
Taken back, Kate asked, "What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure it's safe." Angel knew he sounded like a jerk and an idiot at the same time, but it was for Kate's own good.
"What's not safe?"
"I can't really explain it."
"You know I'm having a problem trusting people- and surprise, you're not making it any better," Kate half-joked.
"I'm just asking you not to go in there."
"And where are you going?"
After an uncomfortable beat, Angel answered., "In there."
"Well, I'll tell you what... I can go wherever I want and ah,... you can go to Hell."
When Kate stormed into the bar, Angel said to himself, "Been there, done that." He sighed and went inside D'Oblique to find his girlfriend and some information.
Back at the office, the other four were sitting around, surrounded by books.
Finding something in the large tome in his lap, Xander pointed at a picture of a demon. "Hey, here's another one. Piasca. It's a flesh-eating Indian demon that enters victims through the mouth and eviscerates from within. You're going to put that down?" He asked Cordelia.
"Yeah," she noted it on the list they made of possible demons. "Ugh, demons. Is there anything more disgusting?"
Doyle exchanged looks with Willow and Xander at Cordelia's comment. "You think so?"
Cordy looked at him surprised. "Come on. Okay, look at this one," she picked up a book and pointed at a certainly unattractive demon with spines like a stegosaurus and a wreath on it's scabby head, "This demon wears a wreath of intestines around its head. I mean honestly, what kind of a statement is this thing trying to make with that?"
"Yeah, you know," Doyle said, stumbling over his words as he tried to come up with a reason to change her mind without reveling his secret demon side, "Uh, I mean, it really depends, doesn't it?... I mean some demons could actually be nice... given the opportunity. I think, you'd have to get to know them, yeah?"
Unfazed, Cordelia returned, "I've met a lot of demons, and slime aside, not a whole lot going on there."
Once again, Doyle glanced over at the two that actually knew of his other half, and saw that Willow was looking at him sympathetically, while Xander was trying to hold in his laughter.
Almost immediately, Angel found Buffy leaning leisurely on the bar, sipping on a glass of Coke.
"Hey," he greeted when he approached her.
"Hey, how's your girlfriend," she questioned teasingly.
"I tried to warn her without giving away too much, and now she hates me. She condemned me to hell."
"Well, she's too late, 'cause I already sent you there," Buffy said with a joking tone, but he could see in her eyes that the memory still caused her grief. To ease some that pain, he captured her lips in a light, reassuring kiss.
"I found out some stuff," Buffy told him when they separated.
"What?" Angel urged on a little eagerly.
"There was this guy that was looking for another guy named Kevin, who's a regular here and just went all MIA. The bartender told him that he left with a woman last night named Sharon Richler, another regular."
"Is she here tonight?"
"She was, but she left with another guy, The bartender said he was some Screech."
Unfamiliar with the term, Angel looked confused. "Screech?"
She patted him on the chest, "I'll tell you later, Honey."
"Okay, well, we need to-"
Buffy held up a page from the yellow pages that contained the address of Sharon. "Got it."
"Alright then, let's go." He grabbed Buffy's hand and the two rushed out of the bar together. Unbeknownst to them, Kate watched their every move suspiciously.
Angel and Buffy quickly got to the apartment in record speed, literally running into people on the way. As soon as they reached the right door, Angel bursted inside, surprising both him and Buffy. They looked at each other, knowing the reason why he didn't need an invitation, and started to scan the apartment grimly.
The warrior duo walked over to an open door and saw Sharon lying on the bed, looking as if she been dead for a week. They moved their eyes over a few yards and saw a small dark-haired man tugging on a black shirt. The weird thing was that a tail end of a some creature disappeared into his back, and left no visible marks behind.
He suddenly sensed Buffy and Angel behind him and turned around. "You're not human," he commented toward Angel.
"Newsflash, pal, you're a bit off the evolutionary chart yourself," Angel returned.
All three of them looked over to the corpse of Sharon.
"This has to stop," Buffy stated with an intimidating tone, "You have to stop."
"I will," It said slowly and evilly, "When I find the right one. The one I can stay with."
"The right body? What's wrong with this one?"
"Nothing," the demon examined its newly required body, "-yet. It's new and different. It's great... But it won't last. I already know it's not the one I can live in."
"Well, then it'll have to be the one you die in."
The demon stalked toward the battle prepared couple and attacked the slayer first.
For a small demon in a wimpy body, the burrower was pretty strong. After a few hits, the demon threw Buffy against a shelf, causing her a hard hit to the head and left her unconscious as she slid to the floor.
With a growl, Angel lunged toward the demon in his feral, demonic face. They exchanged some evenly matched blows, but then the demon managed to drop Angel with a punch to his back and slammed his head into a wall. Persistent and pissed as ever, Angel shot back up and they began to hit and throw each other around again. The burrower crashed Angel's head through a glass casing before he picked him up and threw him through the air. Angel hit the same wall Buffy was slumped against and slid down next to her.
Before Angel could get up again, the demon-possessed man took off and disappeared within a blink of an eye. Angel let out a growl when he found that he had lost his opponent.
He heard fast approaching steps, and was shocked to see that it was Kate. He got to his feet and transformed back into his normal features before Kate could see.
"Kate, what are you doing here?"
He saw her look passed him, and followed her blue eyes. His eyes widened when she saw her looking at the dead body on the bed and Buffy's unconscious form on the floor.
"Look, I know what this looks like," he tried to explain. Betrayal, anger, and hurt were three of the aspects he could read on Kate's face.
Suddenly, Kate aimed a cocked pistol at his face and pulled out a police badge. "So do I." With her gun still held up, she put her badge back into her pocket. "LAPD. You have the right to..."
"I waive it. How did you find me?"
"I've been tracking you since last night."
"Listen...," he tried to move closer.
"Don't move! Not a step. Backup is on the way."
"We're on the same side. I'm after this guy, too."
"You're telling me you're an investigator?"
"More or less," he replied, unsure of how to answer that question.
"Where's your license?"
"That's the less part."
"Right."
"Kate, you don't know, you didn't see-,"
"What I see is the carving job of an impotent sicko. It's frustrating, isn't it, not being able to connect, to love like other people? I mean, how do you get them to trust you, Angel? Give them the big dark eyes, the 'I'm not good with talk' speech?"
"He gives them what they are longing for," he tried once again, a little more forcefully.
She raised an eyebrow at him, the gun still separating them two. "And that is?"
"Hope. That the loneliness is going to end, and he is going to do it again..."
"Unless I let you go so you can stop him," she finished for him sarcastically, "Save me the lines. I've heard them."
"And I've heard yours. Something about not being able to trust people?"
Kate put away her gun and took out her handcuffs. "Turn around," she ordered bitterly.
Angel did as he was told and put his hand up against the wall with a sigh. He stole a glance over at his girlfriend and saw her starting to stir. Kate slapped a cuff around his right wrist and pulled his other arm down.
"I'm sorry," he apologized.
"Is that a confession?"
"I didn't do that. I'm sorry for this!" He kicked back and knocked her down. He sprinted over to a now fully awake Buffy and scooped her into his arms.
He managed to dodge the bullets Kate fired at him on his way to the window, and felt a sense of deja vu. "Oh no. Not again," he heard Buffy mumble right before he dived out and landed on a hood of a car.
Cordelia unlocked and opened the door to her less than fancy apartment. Doyle, Xander, and Willow followed her in, all of them were holding stacks of books.
The three guests examined Cordelia's abode, and found themselves speechless that someone like Cordelia would ever live in a dump like the one they were standing in. It was a small space, with only a living room with furniture that looked like it came from the Salvation Army, and a questionable looking bathroom. The place was a mess, clothes and papers were thrown about carelessly, while bags and cartons of junk food laid open on the table and even the floor.
"Wow," Doyle spoke up, "This... place is... I thought girls were supposed to like pretty things."
"Ugh. Don't start okay? Angel told us to meet here, so we're meeting here. That doesn't mean you can..."
Xander picked up a black bra and held it up to his chest; he and Doyle smiled at the brunette in amusement.
Cordelia snatched it away with irritation. "That is so highschool! Cordelia wears bras. Ooh, she has girly parts!"
"Take it easy. You're being a tad defensive here," Xander said.
"I think it's refreshing to see a woman living like this," Doyle threw in, "You know, it means you're not so uptight. Means you live for the moment." He began to walk, but stepped into a dirty cereal bowl sitting on the floor. Xander, Willow, and Doyle looked at the bowl and then at Cordy with a grimace. "You're disgusting," Doyle changed his opinion of her.
Cordelia dismissed it and went to answer the door when someone knocked. "Who is it," she called out.
"It's us," she heard Buffy's voice.
Cordy undid the chain holding the door and opened it. Angel and Buffy stood on the other side, both of them looked a bit beaten up.
"Oh my God. Are you okay," Cordelia questioned.
Buffy stepped inside, but Angel still stood in the doorway a little uncomfortably.
"Look, I-I can't, umm..."
"Invite him in," Doyle demanded impatiently.
"As long as you're alive, vampires, they can't cross the threshold unless you...," Buffy informed her.
"Oh, right, right," she turned to Angel sternly, "You promise you'll stay good," she said, obviously still afraid of Angelus like everyone else.
"Cordelia," Angel and Buffy warned simultaneously.
"I'm kidding. Come in." He entered and she closed the door behind him.
"What happened to you two," Willow questioned worriedly, "You look wrecked!"
"The woman that I was talking to at the bar last night... you know, Kate?"
"She's the killer," Cordelia assumed.
"She's a cop. Followed me to another body."
"Now she thinks you're the killer," Xander summed up.
"Yeah. So we don't have a lot of time to...," he trailed off and looked around his surroundings when he saw Buffy staring at Cordelia's decor in shock. He grinned at Buffy and then at Cordelia. "You actually live here," he asked, laughter was evident in his voice. The others laughed quietly along with him.
"Yes," she hissed, "okay? Is it my fault that maid service was interrupted? It was supposed to go, home, hotel, hotel, husband. Now can we move on?"
"Yeah, well, we put together that list of eviscerating demons that you asked for. We actually narrowed it down to three or four," Willow told Buffy and Angel.
"We saw it. It's a burrower," Buffy informed them.
"It's a donkey," Cordelia said, causing everyone to stare at her weirdly, "Oh, we didn't see any donkey demons."
"Burrower," Angel said more clearly and firmly for her.
"Oh."
"It eviscerates its victims as it moves from body to body, and it may only be able to do it after some kind of a sex act, exchange of fluids kind of thing."
"Eww," Cordelia exclaimed while Willow wrinkled her nose in disgust and Xander and Doyle simultaneously said, "Lovely."
"Look, I want you to find out anything you can about this thing. Weaknesses especially. It was amazingly strong while we were fighting. It may be hard to kill."
"We're on it," Doyle confirmed.
"Good, We're going to get back to the bar, see if we can find this thing."
"What makes you think that it will show," Xander inquired, "It knows you're after it."
"It'll be out there," Buffy returned, "It's got to keep trying to make a connection."
"Why," Cordelia asked before they headed out again.
Angel turned to them, "Because that's what lonely people do." Buffy lightly grasped his fingers, and together they left the apartment.
While the crew was out, Kate stepped into Angel Investigations cautiously with her gun drawn. She took the stairs that lead down to Angel's apartment and searched around for the man in question or for any clues to use against him.
She went into the kitchen and opened the fridge; it was lucky for Angel that he drained his last bag of blood that morning. She went further into the apartment and frowned at the assortment of weapons that decorated Angel's wall. The blonde cop was inwardly berating herself for letting her guard down and actually trusting this guy.
She was determined, though. One way or another, she was going to find something to bring the dark, mysterious man down. No one messed with Detective Kate Lockley, no matter how sexy or charming they were.
It was during the pre-dawn hours, and a tired Angel and Buffy walked down the sidewalk that lead to Cordelia's trashy apartment. The hunt for the missing burrower was unsuccessful.
They went to bar after bar within the city limits. They examined every person in the establishments that could house the demon, but it was to no avail.
With their arms wrapped around each other, they entered the apartment to find Xander, Cordelia, and Doyle asleep on Cordy's beat up couch; Willow seemed to be missing.
When Angel slammed the door, the three snapped awake.
"Morning," Buffy greeted, her lack of enthusiasm was palpable.
"Hey, ah," Doyle said, "so any luck yet?"
"No, not yet," Angel sat down in a chair, and Buffy plopped into his lap, "I know I can recognize this thing if I saw it in another body."
"That shouldn't be a problem then. That narrows it down to what? Five million suspects in the naked city," Xander sarcastically commented.
Angel massaged the bridge of his nose. "Where's Willow," he wondered out of nowhere.
"She went to check on Oz," Cordelia answered.
"Okay. Did you find anything?"
"Yeah," Xander said, "We found a name for this burrower guy. Tahlmer? He's been around forever. A dawn of time kind of dude."
"Any weaknesses," Buffy questioned.
"Few and far between. This kid is strong like you said. Not too crazy about fire though," Doyle said.
"Something we have in common," Angel dead-panned.
"It's a parasite," Cordelia informed, "It moves from body to body. And when it leaves one for the next, not going to gag here, but the first one goes kaplooey pretty fast."
"Yep, curdles like cream on a hot day," Xander said.
"I believe I covered that with non dairy kaplooey," she started to argue with him. It suddenly felt just like highschool.
Angel patted the side of Buffy's thigh as a signal to her that he wanted to get up. They stood up from the chair. "I'm going to need help to find this thing."
"Well, who are you calling," Doyle asked.
"Kate."
Buffy's eyes widened. "Cagney and Lacy Kate? I thought we were hiding from her."
"We were. But she's been tracking this thing a lot longer than we have." Angel picked up the phone and looked up in time to catch the frown on Buffy's face.
"Lockley," Kate answered the phone.
"It's me, I need you to help me find the killer."
"That's easy. I'm talking to him," Kate replied coldly.
"That would make things nice and clean now, wouldn't it? But it's not true and I think some part of you knows that. Look he's still out there. We should be sharing information."
"That's not possible."
"All I need is five minutes. You think I'm your man after that, arrest me. Meet me at the bar at seven."
"Sure, that's actually on my to-do list for this week: walk into a serial killer's trap."
"Look, I don't care if you come armed, wired, and covered by sharp shooters. Do whatever it takes so you feel secure," From the corner of his eye, he saw Buffy's pacing suddenly stop and knew she was giving him a death glare for putting himself in that much danger. "I can help you Kate, but you're just going to have to trust me."
With that, he hung up the phone and looked at the others watching him expectantly.
If Angel thought his and Buffy's romantic moment was unattainable before, he could just throw any chance of revival out the window now.
When the time came for him to meet Kate, he ordered her to stay with the others. He didn't want to risk the chance of another run-in with Tahlmer and she getting hurt again. He was now on his way to D'Oblique, and he left a very pissed off slayer behind him.
He entered the club, yet again, and scanned for the blonde cop. He couldn't wait until this thing was over so he didn't have to step foot in this horrible place ever again.
Angel went up to the bar and asked one of the bartenders if he had seen Kate. The man informed him that she had gone into the back room with the main bartender. Angel's heroic instincts took over, and he hauled ass to the back.
Having impeccable timing as always, he found the bartender looming over an unconscious Kate. Just before he could make contact with her revealed skin and release Tahlmer into her, Angel grabbed a board and hit him upside the head. The bartender was thrown back and he dropped Kate. The demon that was poking out of his chest retracted, and unlike before, left a mark behind.
Angel grabbed a hold of Kate's shoulders, "Kate! Kate? Can you move?"
"Move," he suddenly heard Buffy's voice and pulled Kate out of the way right when the bartender slammed a keg down on them. Buffy hurled her fist into his stomach, and stared at the flap of skin hanging loose from his forehead where it got hit by the board with disgust.
"Eww... I guess you're done with that body." The bartender grabbed her and shoved her violently against the fence of the storage closet.
"Buffy," she heard Angel exclaim.
Still pressed up against the metal-linked gate, she started to talk. "It's tough being the guy. You don't get to finish, you just come apart at the seams."
Buffy slammed her head back into his face, causing the bartender to stumble back a few steps. She hung onto the fence and swung up her legs to capture the man's neck into a scissor hold. She used the leverage to twist her body and throw him to the ground.
Kate watched her fight with astonishment, and a little bit of confusion. She remembered her being the girl that Angel "kidnaped."
"Wasn't she one of the victims at the house," the cop asked Angel, who's eyes were glued on his girlfriend.
"No, she's the fighter," he stated rather proudly.
When the bartender took the upper hand and almost tossed Buffy into the basement storeroom, Angel ran up and grabbed him away from her.
He tossed him aside, but he retaliated by throwing Kate into them, and they tumbled down the stairs. The bartender slammed the door shut, effectively trapping them in the basement.
"We can't let him get away," Kate said when they untangled their bodies at the foot of the stairs.
"He's not going to leave. He's going to kill again, now," Angel told her.
"You think so?"
"He has to." Angel got up from the floor and helped Buffy up. "I thought I told you to stay behind," he said to her.
"Yeah, and I told you I wouldn't, so what's the big deal," she returned.
"You could've gotten hurt again."
"Well I didn't. You've known me for a few years now, you know I can take care of myself... and I'm just as stubborn as you, so let's move on." Buffy let it go and kissed him on the cheek to end it.
Angel sighed and ran his hand from her hair to her neck affectionately to show that he gave in. "We need to get out of here." She nodded and he ran up the stairs, Kate was still sitting at the bottom steps.
Angel threw himself against the heavy wooden door, but it wouldn't budge. Eventually, after a few more shoves and some kicks from Buffy, they finally gave up on that method and walked down the stairs.
Angel helped up a hurt Kate from the floor, while he and Buffy looked around the room for another way out.
"Now what," Kate asked.
Buffy watched Angel as he scanned the basement. She followed his brown eyes staring thoughtfully at a row of windows lined just under the ceiling. The blonde slayer read her vampire's mind and smirked at Kate.
"We're going out that window," she told her.
The cop looked between the two as if they were crazy. "It's almost thirty feet up!"
Without a word. Angel reached into his back pocket and pulled out a grappling gun.
"How very Batman of you," Buffy commented, "Xander would be proud."
Angel just scoffed in return. He aimed it at an angled support beam next to the window. He triggered the release and the hook shot up and wrapped itself around the beam.
"Who are you," Kate questioned incredulously.
He gave the rope a good pull, which did nothing but make the wood break and fall to pieces.
"Way to go," Buffy said sarcastically, earning a glare from her boyfriend.
Finally deciding to take matters in her own hands, Kate bent down and pulled a hold-out gun out of her boot. She ran up the stairs, and shot the lock right off the door. When they were free, the three hurried out in search of Tahlmer.
They searched through the crowded club and found no trace of the decaying bartender. Right when they ran outside, they split up and ran in different directions.
With his vampire enhanced senses, Angel suddenly picked up on the smell of decaying flesh and the sounds of a screaming woman. The trail led him behind a building with three bums standing around a barrel of fire. He turned a corner and ran into an alley and found the bartender holding a struggling blonde woman.
Angel launched himself at the bartender and tackled him, knocking him away from the girl.
"Run," he ordered the girl, and she obeyed without a word.
Getting right to work, Angel flipped the bartender over a crate and threw him around. They fought intensely, but even though the bartender was falling apart, he was still stronger than Angel and didn't even flinch when the vampire threw him against the wall.
He shoved Angel into a crate and when he bounced back up, the bartender jumped up and hung from a fire escape and kicked him away. He landed in front of the flaming barrel, causing the bums to flee.
The demon grabbed Angel and tried to force his head into the burning barrel. Angel managed to spin away and throw the bartender back into the alley, but he got right back up and resumed fighting.
After a few hard hits, the demon bartender threw Angel out of the alley again, and toward the barrel. He ran to jump on top of Angel, but the vampire used his foot to catapult him over his head. The bartender overturned the barrel and bursted into flames.
Horrible screeches came from the living torch, as he stumbled toward Angel, who was desperately trying to move, but found no strength left in his body.
As the walking flames got closer to a weakened Angel, Buffy and Kate ran into the alley.
"Angel," Buffy cried out. Just when she was about to run in to save him, Kate blocked her and fired a few bullets. The burning bartender faltered back and fell to the ground.
Angel turned his head and saw the girls behind him, and finally allowed himself to collapse. Buffy ran around Kate and dropped to her knees to help her boyfriend get to his feet.
Not long after, a fire truck, an ambulance, and a police car were parked at the mouth of the alley. Paramedics wheeled a gurney with a body bag filled with what was left of the bartender over to the ambulance.
After a routine conversation with another detective, Kate immediately turned when a stronger Angel walked up to her with Buffy wrapped in his arms.
"It all seems to add up," Kate told them, "The bartender was connected to everyone... I must've talked to him a dozen times. I never had a clue."
"It's hard to get to know people," Angel replied.
"Yes, it is," she sadly agreed. "I didn't thank you... both of you... for saving my life."
"I think saving his is a start," Buffy said and smiled gratefully at her and then lovingly at Angel.
Kate stared at the couple for a moment, and she felt a distinct pang of envy and sadness. "I think you should know I searched your place... illegally, no warrant."
Before Buffy could voice her most likely irrational opinion, Angel queried, "Why are you telling me?"
"I don't know. I guess so we can start fresh. No secrets... That's some pretty weird stuff for a veterinarian."
Angel and Buffy exchanged half smiles; there was a secret twinkle in their eyes.
Angel dug into his trench coat pocket and pulled out one of his calling cards.
"Look, if you ever need us, or if we can help you in any way...," he trailed off and handed her the card.
Kate looked at it confused. "What is this? A lobster?"
Buffy snickered at her comment and Angel took the card away from her.
"Uh... We'll be around." When Kate got distracted by the other detective, Angel and Buffy stealthily walked away and disappeared into the shadows.
Back at the office, Angel paced and talked while the rest of the group stared at him.
"I know you guys have been working hard. I mean, you've been cooped up inside a lot. And to show my appreciation I was thinking... The night being, you know, young and all... that the seven of us- could- well, should... you know, maybe... go out... you know, for fun," he stumbled.
Doyle, Xander, Willow, Oz, and Cordelia exchanged looks before standing up and gathering their things.
"Or we can go home," Cordelia retaliated.
"And you can sit in the dark alone," Xander said.
"With Buffy," Doyle finished, winking at the blonde.
Angel breathed a sigh of relief, "God yes! Thank you."
Buffy raised an eyebrow at him. "What makes you think you're going to be alone with me?"
A chorus of "Ooooh's" were sung before the filed out of the office. The lights were flicked off and in the darkness, Buffy's joyful giggle echoed.
TBC..
Oh! I forgot! I need to respond to some questions that ppl asked... Don't worry, Lindsey will come, but I don't think he comes 'til "Five by Five"... so... patience is a virtue. And I don't know if this is gonna be a Xander/Cordy thing or Doyle/Cordy thing. The only definite couples that I'm gonna have is of course Buffy/Angel and Willow/Oz. If anybody has anymore questions, just ask. Just no more negative feedback... They're not very fun.
Lynn