"So, Angel, how long have you and Buffy been dating?" Hank asked.
"Well, I met her when she first came to Sunnydale. I was her..history..tutor. We got really close over the year and then by the time she was a junior, we had fallen for each other." Angel said.
Buffy took his hand and squeezed it gratefully. "I love him dad."
"You love him?" Hank asked.
"Yes. He loves me too."
"Do you?"
"Yes. Mr. Summers, I love your daughter more than anything I could ever have imagined. I want to marry her one day with your permission, sir."
Buffy's eyes shined as she looked at her Angel. He looked back at her and smiled. Hank obviously saw the love that passed between them, because his next words were, "I'd be happy to have someone that makes my daughter so happy as a son-in-law. But, I will have to get to know you better."
"Of course." Angel said.
"What do you do, Angel?" Lesley asked.
"I'm, uh.."
"He graduates from college this year." Buffy filled in, remembering the story she had told her mother. "He's studying mythological history."
"Really?" Lesley said. "Do you like it?"
"Uh, yeah. It's pretty good." Angel said.
"Xander, when do you start your trip?" Willow asked, relieving Buffy and Angel from the awkward conversation with her dad.
"Oh, well.." Xander caught on to what Willow was doing. "I'll probably pack up this week and leave this coming weekend."
"You're going on a trip?" Lesley asked.
"Yeah. I've always wanted to see all 50 states."
"Sounds interesting. What about college?"
"It's overrated."
"What about you Willow, what are you doing after summer?"
"I'll be attending UC Sunnydale with Buffy and Oz.. and Angel."
"Oh! Buffy, you didn't tell us that you were going to UC Sunnydale." Hank said. "We thought that you'd go to Northwestern. Your mother said that you'd made it in."
"No, dad. I wanted to go to UC Sunnydale. I thought mom told you." Buffy said.
"We were so hoping that you would go there, Buffy. Why would you throw your life away staying in Sunnydale?"
"Dad.. It's too much to explain. I just wanted to stay there."
"Hank, let's just enjoy dinner. We'll talk about this later." Lesley said. She saw how much Buffy was getting upset by her dad's rant.
Angel squeezed Buffy's hand tighter to reassure her that he was there for her. He could tell she was about to cry. Willow looked at him, trying to get him to talk about something else. He looked back at her, not really knowing what exactly to say. She looked over at Oz, who wouldn't be too much help. He was a man of very little words. Willow looked over at Xander. He stared back and shrugged, sticking a giant piece of turkey in his mouth.
Willow sighed. "Um, Mr. Summers, where's a good movie theatre around here?"
"What?" Hank asked.
"Well, I was thinking that it would be cool to go to an LA movie theatre. I've never been to one and I was hoping I could squeeze it in while we were here."
"Oh, um, there's the Sunset 5 on Sunset Boulevard."
"Ok. Any others?"
"There's also Tomkat Theatres."
"Sunset 5 is the best Will. My friends and I used to go there all the time." Buffy said.
"Then, that's where we'll go." Willow said happily.
They finished dinner and got into their cars. Buffy and Angel in his. Xander climbed in with Oz and Willow in Oz's van. They headed off to see a movie. The lines weren't long, being a Monday night and all, and they found seats easy. Buffy and Angel sat in the middle of a row, Willow and Oz sat in the row in front of them, and Xander sat in the row behind them.
Buffy was a little nervous. This was her first movie with Angel since that funky kimono one at the Sun Cinema that they had both thought was bout food. She relaxed a little half way through the movie. It was enough to make her melt into Angel's chest and enjoy the movie, but more so, enjoy the feel of him, the smell of him, the very nearness of him again. It was heaven for her.
When Tuesday night rolled around, Angel was a little more than anxious to get the hell out of there. Buffy's dad had taken the day off and insisted that he be able to spend some quality time with Angel. He had made Lesley take Buffy and Willow out for a day of shopping and girly fun.
Willow had gotten her hair cut a lot shorter and Buffy had gotten some lighter highlights in her hair. Lesley had opted for a makeover, so the three had gotten makeup galore put on them. Then they had gone out for Dip- n-Dots before going to the Sunset Plaza and shopping till, literally, they dropped. By the time they got home, Buffy had collapsed on her bed, Angel watching her amusingly. She dropped all her bags and then dropped herself to the bed. He had closed the door and covered her little body with his own. They weren't about to test the loophole thing just yet, but soon Angel had promised.
Now they were piling into cars. Buffy had to borrow one of her dad's large suitcases to accommodate for all the stuff that Lesley had bought her. She was lucky that Angel's trunk was so big. The rest of them piled stuff into Oz's van and then Xander had hopped into his car. They hit the road and two and a half hours later, they were in home not so sweet Sunnydale home.
Xander, Oz, and Willow headed their own separate ways, while Angel took Buffy home. Buffy opened the door to find her mother sitting in the living room watching TV. She looked up when her daughter and Angel had walked in.
"Oh honey!" Joyce said, throwing her arms around Buffy. "Are you ok? I was so worried about you! I thought you had run away again."
"Didn't you get my note?" Buffy asked.
"What note? There was no note."
"I laid it on my bed, on my pillow."
"It wasn't there. I never found one."
"Maybe the wind blew it off. But I'm fine mom. You don't need to worry about me."
"I know, but you're still my little girl. I don't know what I would do if I lost you."
"And I don't know what I would do if I lost you. I love you mom. I'm sorry I upset you. I was in LA at dad's with Willow, Oz, and Xander. We found Angel. I convinced him to come back."
Angel nodded at Joyce. He was a little uncomfortable around the eldest Summers woman. She had said some pretty harsh things to him and she had made it perfectly clear more than once about her feelings towards him. Which is why it shocked him so much when Joyce said, "I'm sorry Angel."
"Excuse me?" Angel asked.
"I'm sorry for what I said to you about your and Buffy's relationship. I know how much you two love each other and I guess that it scared me that you were the one that could take my daughter from me."
"I never wanted to take your daughter away Mrs. Summers."
"I know. I realize that. That's why I'm saying sorry. You're the one person on this God forsaken earth that makes my little girl happiest. And that's all I ever wanted for her, was for her to be happy. I hope that you can find it in your hear to forgive me."
"I forgive you and you were right. But I'm sure that Buffy and I can make those decisions together without making much of a mistake."
"I know."
"Mom, I'm going to put my stuff up in my room and then I have to patrol. Angel's going with me. We have to go see Giles tonight. Before it's too late." Buffy said.
"Mr. Giles was worried about you too. He was looking for you. He was worried something had happened to you when he couldn't find you at the high school."
"Which is another reason that I'm going to see him. I'll be back as soon as possible."
Buffy picked up her dad's large suitcase and started to haul it up the steps. Angel took it from her and said that he knew the way to her room. She went and grabbed her Slayer's bag and stored some weapons in it. When Angel came back downstairs, Buffy kissed her mother goodnight, told her not to wait up because it would be late, and left.
Buffy and Angel walked silently through the night towards Giles' house. When they arrived, it took a few rounds of pounding on his door to get him to the door. Buffy figured he was sleeping. Her suspicions had proved accurate because when the door opened, a disheveled Giles stared at her.
"Buffy?" Giles asked. Then he realized that it was in fact her. "Buffy! Where have you been? Your mother and I were so worried about you!"
"Giles, please. Never use 'your mother and I' ever again! It's too traumatizing to think about!" Buffy said with a smirk.
"Right, sorry about that. But in my defense, it was the chocolate YOU sold me."
"Sure. Whatever. Anyways, I was in LA. I went to see my dad and find Angel."
For the first time, Giles noticed the tall, dark vampire standing just behind Buffy. "Angel. Right. Uh, please come in." He stood back to allow them to enter.
They accepted the offer and went to Giles' couch. He followed them over then stopped by the kitchen. Buffy looked up at him, waiting for him to come sit down.
"Can I get you anything?" Giles asked.
"No. I'm good." Buffy said.
"Me too." Angel said.
"Ok." Giles started to go fix himself something, but stopped himself and sat down in a chair facing the two. "What can I do for you at this late hour?"
"Well.. We needed to ask you about the spell." Buffy said.
"The spell?"
"Angel's soul spell."
"The spell of restoration. What about it?"
"Well, this demony guy with visions told Angel that his soul was bound because of the spell Willow did. Angel and I think that maybe Ms. Calendar, Jenny, changed the spell to get rid of the loophole."
"We were hoping that we could research it." Angel said.
"Yes. Of course you both would want to. But I'm afraid I don't know much about the spell. The only people that would know about it would be.."
"The Romany." Angel finished.
"Yes, unfortunately our connections to them no longer exist."
Angel looked down at his and Buffy's intertwined hands. He still felt so guilty about that and it hurt that Giles had said it so harshly.
"Giles.." Buffy warned. He looked at her apologizingly and she continued. "So what your saying is that the only way we can found out if it's true is to find these Romany and talk to them..get them to find out if there's really a loophole?"
"Um, yes. But I don't know exactly where to find them. Not many of them exist nowadays. The only plausible way is to go to their homeland and ask around."
"Then that's what we'll do. School doesn't start for another three months. We have time."
"Buffy.. I don't think your mother would agree. Maybe you should just stay here."
"And do what? You want us to test the spell? Risk Angel turning if it was a lie? Or do you want us to torture ourselves with the thought that we could be happy, but it's too much of a risk because it COULD be a lie?"
"No, or course not."
"Then Angel and I go. We'll leave on a freighter tomorrow night. I'll go home, get packed, and tell mom what we're going to do. We should be back by late July, early August."
"Buffy, are you sure you want to do this?" Angel asked. "It's going to be a long journey. What if we don't make it here by the time you have to start school?"
"I don't know. That's all in the future. Besides, airplanes are faster."
"Buffy, the sun. There's no sure way that we wouldn't hit it."
"Yes there is. They have little window shutters that you can pull down."
"What about the windows at the airport?"
"We can make night time flights. By the time we got across the ocean, the sun would be down over there."
"Maybe."
"We'd only use that in case of emergency. Sound good?"
"I guess. What about slaying?"
"Willow, Xander, Oz, and Giles can take that over. They did last summer."
"Buffy, far be it for me to stop you from being happy with the man you love, but I have to say that this is a bad idea." Giles said.
"Why?"
"You've never been there, you don't have the spell, you don't speak Romanian, and you don't have the resources to make that kind of trip!"
"I do." Angel said.
"What?"
"I can make sure Buffy is safe and warm. I have plenty of money in banks all around the world. I can provide lodging and food and clothing if she needs it. I would give her anything."
"Giles, we need this." Buffy said. "We can't spend the next few years of our lives wondering if we can be happy, but torturing ourselves with the possibility of what could happen."
"You know that I would never ask anything of you after what I've done, but I'm asking now. Please allow Buffy and I to do this. We need this more than anything right now. If we're going to be together for good, we need to find out if what Doyle said is true."
Giles stared at the pleading couple for a long moment. He wasn't sure if he completely trusted the vampire with his slayer. He might have before the whole Angelus thing happened. He sighed, giving into his love for Buffy. If she could forgive the vampire and love him openly again, then maybe he could start to fully trust him.
Buffy smiled at him, knowing that he had changed his mind. "Giles?"
"I'll explain to the others where you've gone. If you need any help, financially or otherwise, I'll try to provide it as best I can." Giles finally answered.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Buffy said shooting off the couch and throwing her arms around her watcher's neck.
Angel stood and walked to Giles. He held out his hand and Giles took it firmly. The two men shook and gave each other a slight nod.
"Don't let her get hurt." Giles said.
"I would never dream of it." Angel replied.
"Report to me before you leave. I need to find the restoration spell that Willow used. By the time you explain to your mother where you two are going, Buffy, and get packed up, I should have it for you."
"We will." Buffy and Angel ran out the door and headed for her house where her and Angel's stuff was. His was all in the trunk of his car while Buffy's stuff was in big suitcases up in her room. Angel grabbed her stuff and shoved it all in the car's trunk. Buffy packed a few more suitcases for the long trip and set them in the hall. While she waited for Angel to return and get these, Buffy sat down to write a long letter to her mother.
Dear Mom, I love you. I wanted you to know this. You're asleep as I write this letter, but I wanted to tell you that I am sorry for the things I said to you the night of my graduation. I realize that you were being overprotective mom. Well, now is the time that you need to realize that I'm not little Buffy anymore. I'm all grown up. I grew up before my time and sometimes I wish that I could be that little five year old I once was for you. But that's never going to happen.
Geez, I'm saying all this like I'm dying or something. I'm not, so please don't worry. Angel and I are going to Europe. It's not a vacation; it's something we have to do. We received word from an acquaintance that Angel's soul is bound to him because of the spell that Willow did to give Angel back his soul. We are going to find out if it is true. We are going to find out if we can really truly be together. Mom, I love him so much and I hope that you can accept this letter without hating Angel for what we are doing. We made the decision together. Giles helped us; so don't be mad at him either. Don't worry about food and shelter and all that. Angel has money all around the world that he's going to use for us. I really want this no loophole thing to be true, Mom. I want to finally let everything go and be happy. I hope that you understand why I'm doing this.
Angel and I have to go now. We'll be back about late July, early August. I'll see you then. We'll be in touch, I promise you. I love you so much mommy. Take care of yourself. Your ever-loving daughter, Buffy
"Are you ready?" Angel asked from her doorway.
Buffy folded the paper and put it in an envelope. "Yeah, just let me put this where I know mom will see it."
"Ok."
Buffy crept into her mother's room and laid the letter on her nightstand propped up by her water glass. She leaned over and gently laid a kiss to her mom's forehead and then silently left. Taking Angel's hand, they went to his car and drove to Giles' house. They got the spell from him, said their goodbyes to him and told him to tell everyone not to worry. They were going to call the minute they could get to a phone. Buffy gave Giles one final hug and then Angel and her were headed towards the docks to start their journey.
"Well, I met her when she first came to Sunnydale. I was her..history..tutor. We got really close over the year and then by the time she was a junior, we had fallen for each other." Angel said.
Buffy took his hand and squeezed it gratefully. "I love him dad."
"You love him?" Hank asked.
"Yes. He loves me too."
"Do you?"
"Yes. Mr. Summers, I love your daughter more than anything I could ever have imagined. I want to marry her one day with your permission, sir."
Buffy's eyes shined as she looked at her Angel. He looked back at her and smiled. Hank obviously saw the love that passed between them, because his next words were, "I'd be happy to have someone that makes my daughter so happy as a son-in-law. But, I will have to get to know you better."
"Of course." Angel said.
"What do you do, Angel?" Lesley asked.
"I'm, uh.."
"He graduates from college this year." Buffy filled in, remembering the story she had told her mother. "He's studying mythological history."
"Really?" Lesley said. "Do you like it?"
"Uh, yeah. It's pretty good." Angel said.
"Xander, when do you start your trip?" Willow asked, relieving Buffy and Angel from the awkward conversation with her dad.
"Oh, well.." Xander caught on to what Willow was doing. "I'll probably pack up this week and leave this coming weekend."
"You're going on a trip?" Lesley asked.
"Yeah. I've always wanted to see all 50 states."
"Sounds interesting. What about college?"
"It's overrated."
"What about you Willow, what are you doing after summer?"
"I'll be attending UC Sunnydale with Buffy and Oz.. and Angel."
"Oh! Buffy, you didn't tell us that you were going to UC Sunnydale." Hank said. "We thought that you'd go to Northwestern. Your mother said that you'd made it in."
"No, dad. I wanted to go to UC Sunnydale. I thought mom told you." Buffy said.
"We were so hoping that you would go there, Buffy. Why would you throw your life away staying in Sunnydale?"
"Dad.. It's too much to explain. I just wanted to stay there."
"Hank, let's just enjoy dinner. We'll talk about this later." Lesley said. She saw how much Buffy was getting upset by her dad's rant.
Angel squeezed Buffy's hand tighter to reassure her that he was there for her. He could tell she was about to cry. Willow looked at him, trying to get him to talk about something else. He looked back at her, not really knowing what exactly to say. She looked over at Oz, who wouldn't be too much help. He was a man of very little words. Willow looked over at Xander. He stared back and shrugged, sticking a giant piece of turkey in his mouth.
Willow sighed. "Um, Mr. Summers, where's a good movie theatre around here?"
"What?" Hank asked.
"Well, I was thinking that it would be cool to go to an LA movie theatre. I've never been to one and I was hoping I could squeeze it in while we were here."
"Oh, um, there's the Sunset 5 on Sunset Boulevard."
"Ok. Any others?"
"There's also Tomkat Theatres."
"Sunset 5 is the best Will. My friends and I used to go there all the time." Buffy said.
"Then, that's where we'll go." Willow said happily.
They finished dinner and got into their cars. Buffy and Angel in his. Xander climbed in with Oz and Willow in Oz's van. They headed off to see a movie. The lines weren't long, being a Monday night and all, and they found seats easy. Buffy and Angel sat in the middle of a row, Willow and Oz sat in the row in front of them, and Xander sat in the row behind them.
Buffy was a little nervous. This was her first movie with Angel since that funky kimono one at the Sun Cinema that they had both thought was bout food. She relaxed a little half way through the movie. It was enough to make her melt into Angel's chest and enjoy the movie, but more so, enjoy the feel of him, the smell of him, the very nearness of him again. It was heaven for her.
When Tuesday night rolled around, Angel was a little more than anxious to get the hell out of there. Buffy's dad had taken the day off and insisted that he be able to spend some quality time with Angel. He had made Lesley take Buffy and Willow out for a day of shopping and girly fun.
Willow had gotten her hair cut a lot shorter and Buffy had gotten some lighter highlights in her hair. Lesley had opted for a makeover, so the three had gotten makeup galore put on them. Then they had gone out for Dip- n-Dots before going to the Sunset Plaza and shopping till, literally, they dropped. By the time they got home, Buffy had collapsed on her bed, Angel watching her amusingly. She dropped all her bags and then dropped herself to the bed. He had closed the door and covered her little body with his own. They weren't about to test the loophole thing just yet, but soon Angel had promised.
Now they were piling into cars. Buffy had to borrow one of her dad's large suitcases to accommodate for all the stuff that Lesley had bought her. She was lucky that Angel's trunk was so big. The rest of them piled stuff into Oz's van and then Xander had hopped into his car. They hit the road and two and a half hours later, they were in home not so sweet Sunnydale home.
Xander, Oz, and Willow headed their own separate ways, while Angel took Buffy home. Buffy opened the door to find her mother sitting in the living room watching TV. She looked up when her daughter and Angel had walked in.
"Oh honey!" Joyce said, throwing her arms around Buffy. "Are you ok? I was so worried about you! I thought you had run away again."
"Didn't you get my note?" Buffy asked.
"What note? There was no note."
"I laid it on my bed, on my pillow."
"It wasn't there. I never found one."
"Maybe the wind blew it off. But I'm fine mom. You don't need to worry about me."
"I know, but you're still my little girl. I don't know what I would do if I lost you."
"And I don't know what I would do if I lost you. I love you mom. I'm sorry I upset you. I was in LA at dad's with Willow, Oz, and Xander. We found Angel. I convinced him to come back."
Angel nodded at Joyce. He was a little uncomfortable around the eldest Summers woman. She had said some pretty harsh things to him and she had made it perfectly clear more than once about her feelings towards him. Which is why it shocked him so much when Joyce said, "I'm sorry Angel."
"Excuse me?" Angel asked.
"I'm sorry for what I said to you about your and Buffy's relationship. I know how much you two love each other and I guess that it scared me that you were the one that could take my daughter from me."
"I never wanted to take your daughter away Mrs. Summers."
"I know. I realize that. That's why I'm saying sorry. You're the one person on this God forsaken earth that makes my little girl happiest. And that's all I ever wanted for her, was for her to be happy. I hope that you can find it in your hear to forgive me."
"I forgive you and you were right. But I'm sure that Buffy and I can make those decisions together without making much of a mistake."
"I know."
"Mom, I'm going to put my stuff up in my room and then I have to patrol. Angel's going with me. We have to go see Giles tonight. Before it's too late." Buffy said.
"Mr. Giles was worried about you too. He was looking for you. He was worried something had happened to you when he couldn't find you at the high school."
"Which is another reason that I'm going to see him. I'll be back as soon as possible."
Buffy picked up her dad's large suitcase and started to haul it up the steps. Angel took it from her and said that he knew the way to her room. She went and grabbed her Slayer's bag and stored some weapons in it. When Angel came back downstairs, Buffy kissed her mother goodnight, told her not to wait up because it would be late, and left.
Buffy and Angel walked silently through the night towards Giles' house. When they arrived, it took a few rounds of pounding on his door to get him to the door. Buffy figured he was sleeping. Her suspicions had proved accurate because when the door opened, a disheveled Giles stared at her.
"Buffy?" Giles asked. Then he realized that it was in fact her. "Buffy! Where have you been? Your mother and I were so worried about you!"
"Giles, please. Never use 'your mother and I' ever again! It's too traumatizing to think about!" Buffy said with a smirk.
"Right, sorry about that. But in my defense, it was the chocolate YOU sold me."
"Sure. Whatever. Anyways, I was in LA. I went to see my dad and find Angel."
For the first time, Giles noticed the tall, dark vampire standing just behind Buffy. "Angel. Right. Uh, please come in." He stood back to allow them to enter.
They accepted the offer and went to Giles' couch. He followed them over then stopped by the kitchen. Buffy looked up at him, waiting for him to come sit down.
"Can I get you anything?" Giles asked.
"No. I'm good." Buffy said.
"Me too." Angel said.
"Ok." Giles started to go fix himself something, but stopped himself and sat down in a chair facing the two. "What can I do for you at this late hour?"
"Well.. We needed to ask you about the spell." Buffy said.
"The spell?"
"Angel's soul spell."
"The spell of restoration. What about it?"
"Well, this demony guy with visions told Angel that his soul was bound because of the spell Willow did. Angel and I think that maybe Ms. Calendar, Jenny, changed the spell to get rid of the loophole."
"We were hoping that we could research it." Angel said.
"Yes. Of course you both would want to. But I'm afraid I don't know much about the spell. The only people that would know about it would be.."
"The Romany." Angel finished.
"Yes, unfortunately our connections to them no longer exist."
Angel looked down at his and Buffy's intertwined hands. He still felt so guilty about that and it hurt that Giles had said it so harshly.
"Giles.." Buffy warned. He looked at her apologizingly and she continued. "So what your saying is that the only way we can found out if it's true is to find these Romany and talk to them..get them to find out if there's really a loophole?"
"Um, yes. But I don't know exactly where to find them. Not many of them exist nowadays. The only plausible way is to go to their homeland and ask around."
"Then that's what we'll do. School doesn't start for another three months. We have time."
"Buffy.. I don't think your mother would agree. Maybe you should just stay here."
"And do what? You want us to test the spell? Risk Angel turning if it was a lie? Or do you want us to torture ourselves with the thought that we could be happy, but it's too much of a risk because it COULD be a lie?"
"No, or course not."
"Then Angel and I go. We'll leave on a freighter tomorrow night. I'll go home, get packed, and tell mom what we're going to do. We should be back by late July, early August."
"Buffy, are you sure you want to do this?" Angel asked. "It's going to be a long journey. What if we don't make it here by the time you have to start school?"
"I don't know. That's all in the future. Besides, airplanes are faster."
"Buffy, the sun. There's no sure way that we wouldn't hit it."
"Yes there is. They have little window shutters that you can pull down."
"What about the windows at the airport?"
"We can make night time flights. By the time we got across the ocean, the sun would be down over there."
"Maybe."
"We'd only use that in case of emergency. Sound good?"
"I guess. What about slaying?"
"Willow, Xander, Oz, and Giles can take that over. They did last summer."
"Buffy, far be it for me to stop you from being happy with the man you love, but I have to say that this is a bad idea." Giles said.
"Why?"
"You've never been there, you don't have the spell, you don't speak Romanian, and you don't have the resources to make that kind of trip!"
"I do." Angel said.
"What?"
"I can make sure Buffy is safe and warm. I have plenty of money in banks all around the world. I can provide lodging and food and clothing if she needs it. I would give her anything."
"Giles, we need this." Buffy said. "We can't spend the next few years of our lives wondering if we can be happy, but torturing ourselves with the possibility of what could happen."
"You know that I would never ask anything of you after what I've done, but I'm asking now. Please allow Buffy and I to do this. We need this more than anything right now. If we're going to be together for good, we need to find out if what Doyle said is true."
Giles stared at the pleading couple for a long moment. He wasn't sure if he completely trusted the vampire with his slayer. He might have before the whole Angelus thing happened. He sighed, giving into his love for Buffy. If she could forgive the vampire and love him openly again, then maybe he could start to fully trust him.
Buffy smiled at him, knowing that he had changed his mind. "Giles?"
"I'll explain to the others where you've gone. If you need any help, financially or otherwise, I'll try to provide it as best I can." Giles finally answered.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Buffy said shooting off the couch and throwing her arms around her watcher's neck.
Angel stood and walked to Giles. He held out his hand and Giles took it firmly. The two men shook and gave each other a slight nod.
"Don't let her get hurt." Giles said.
"I would never dream of it." Angel replied.
"Report to me before you leave. I need to find the restoration spell that Willow used. By the time you explain to your mother where you two are going, Buffy, and get packed up, I should have it for you."
"We will." Buffy and Angel ran out the door and headed for her house where her and Angel's stuff was. His was all in the trunk of his car while Buffy's stuff was in big suitcases up in her room. Angel grabbed her stuff and shoved it all in the car's trunk. Buffy packed a few more suitcases for the long trip and set them in the hall. While she waited for Angel to return and get these, Buffy sat down to write a long letter to her mother.
Dear Mom, I love you. I wanted you to know this. You're asleep as I write this letter, but I wanted to tell you that I am sorry for the things I said to you the night of my graduation. I realize that you were being overprotective mom. Well, now is the time that you need to realize that I'm not little Buffy anymore. I'm all grown up. I grew up before my time and sometimes I wish that I could be that little five year old I once was for you. But that's never going to happen.
Geez, I'm saying all this like I'm dying or something. I'm not, so please don't worry. Angel and I are going to Europe. It's not a vacation; it's something we have to do. We received word from an acquaintance that Angel's soul is bound to him because of the spell that Willow did to give Angel back his soul. We are going to find out if it is true. We are going to find out if we can really truly be together. Mom, I love him so much and I hope that you can accept this letter without hating Angel for what we are doing. We made the decision together. Giles helped us; so don't be mad at him either. Don't worry about food and shelter and all that. Angel has money all around the world that he's going to use for us. I really want this no loophole thing to be true, Mom. I want to finally let everything go and be happy. I hope that you understand why I'm doing this.
Angel and I have to go now. We'll be back about late July, early August. I'll see you then. We'll be in touch, I promise you. I love you so much mommy. Take care of yourself. Your ever-loving daughter, Buffy
"Are you ready?" Angel asked from her doorway.
Buffy folded the paper and put it in an envelope. "Yeah, just let me put this where I know mom will see it."
"Ok."
Buffy crept into her mother's room and laid the letter on her nightstand propped up by her water glass. She leaned over and gently laid a kiss to her mom's forehead and then silently left. Taking Angel's hand, they went to his car and drove to Giles' house. They got the spell from him, said their goodbyes to him and told him to tell everyone not to worry. They were going to call the minute they could get to a phone. Buffy gave Giles one final hug and then Angel and her were headed towards the docks to start their journey.