Chapter Five

Two hours later Angel leaned over to whisper in Buffy's ear, "I'm going to step outside for a few minutes and clear my head." Buffy nodded her agreement and looked back down at the book she was trying to concentrate on as Angel kissed her cheek, stood, and walked outside.

Once outside Angel took a deep breath just to help loosen the tension he felt building across his shoulders. Being around Xander always irritated him to no end, but being back in Giles' home wasn't helping his nerves any. Angel had, of course, never forgiven himself for anything concerning the death Jenny had received at his hands or the way in which he had presented her to Giles. And with the questions he needed to ask Willow about her spell to re-ensoul him the memories of Jenny's death were near the surface.

Temporarily lost in thought Angel didn't hear the door open until the two women who had stepped out together giggled. Angel looked up to see Willow and Tara saying goodnight and he slipped further into the shadows.

The lovers kissed goodbye and Tara walked off in the opposite direction of where he was standing as Willow watched her leave. Angel stepped out of the shadows and softly called Willow by name to get her attention.

Willow looked towards the sound of her name and saw Angel materializing from the shadows. "Hey, Angel. I thought I saw you step outside earlier."

"Yeah, just wanted a few minutes to clear my head. And now I have a chance to ask you some questions without an audience."

"What's wrong? I'll get Buffy…"

"No Willow! Wait, I can't tell Buffy yet."

"What are…"

"Just listen. I never really thought about who had to do the spell that gave my soul back to me. But on the way here Buffy was thinking out loud and mentioned that you did the spell. Well, that made me think. Willow, what spell did you use?"

Willow, who had never heard Angel speak so much at one time, shook herself in order to answer his question. "The one I found on a disk Miss Calendar left behind. Actually, the disk had fallen between her desk and a cabinet so I was lucky to find it."

"Do you know if there was a translation of the curse on that disk? I would like to know the wording that was used."

"Why? Do you feel different than you did with the original curse?"

"No, of course not. I will never risk Angelus loose again. I am pretty sure that Jenny was working on that spell and that she finished what she was working on before...uh...well, before. I need to know if she changed the curse, and if so, how?"

"Oh. Well I still have a copy of the information on the disk, but it's back at my dorm. Can you wait till tomorrow or should I get it now?"

"Willow, would you please get it now, but without saying anything to anyone else until we know what's on there."

"Sure. Let me get my stuff and… actually why don't you just come with me and we can see what's on the disk without having to come back here – if you really don't want Buffy to know yet."

"That would work better. You go ahead and leave first, then I'll catch up with you at the dorm. Which room is it?"

"I moved into Tara's room – it was bigger than mine. Same building as last year when you came into town for a little while, just up one more floor and on the other end of the hall, the corner room."

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After thirty minutes and a quick explanation to Buffy that he was going to do a sweep of a couple of graveyards Angel knocked on Willow and Tara's door.

"Come in, Angel."

"Thanks, Willow."

"Ssshhh. Tara's already asleep. I have the curse pulled up on my laptop over here." Willow guided Angel across the room to the desk in the corner where she had already pulled up two chairs.

"Okay, Willow, it's all you. Cordy taught me how to email, but that's all I can do on one of these things."

Willow just chuckled a little, nodded her head in understanding and got to work. First was the file she used last time simply entitled "Final Curse to Re-ensoul Angelus" but the curse was not in English, just as Willow remembered. Since nothing else was there she moved on to a file called "research." This one was in English, and both Angel and Willow started reading.

Angel gasped.

Willow clamped her hand over her mouth to keep from squealing out loud.

Jenny Calendar had researched how to reword the curse so that the soul would be permanent.

"How did you know?" Willow asked Angel in awe.

"I didn't. But when I found her in her classroom the night I, eerrr … Angelus ah…"

"Yeah I know the night you mean."

"Right. Well, she was at the computer and said 'this will work' and I thought it was just the translation, because that's what came out on the printer. But you wouldn't have known if any changes had been made. So, I had to know if that was all it was, or not."

"Well, it looks like the last thing she did was the translation. She would have had to make any changes in the original language, but probably went back and forth between the two to get the wording correct."

"Makes sense. Would you call Buffy and have her meet me at the mansion? Just tell her I have some important news, but since it's not about Glory I don't want to talk to her with everyone else around."

"Okay, I can do that. You two have a special evening and I'll keep everyone else off your track till tomorrow night."

"Willow. Thank you," and with that Angel left. He hurried to the mansion to see what kind of shape it was in. He found it a little chilly and a little dusty, but otherwise untouched.