A/N: Well, here we are! And so the rewriting of episodes begins! I only chose to rewrite 9 episodes, and two of those will be combined into one because Angel and Buffy are together, together and I think it will just flow better. So...that said...there's not much of this story left! This episode rewrite ended up being two chapters like the ones in AISHB, but I don't know if the rest will be that long. I might be able to do them in one chapter. Because honestly, I want to get to the sequel to AISHB! I've got 5 chappies under my belt for that story and I love them! I've created my own character (really think you guys will like her), and everything about the sequel is just fantabulous so far, and it's got me all giddy!
Okay, I'm getting a little too carried away...let's focus on this story for the moment, shall we? :D
Random Disclaimer: (I don't own Buffy).
Me: Okay, people! Listen up!
Faith: Who is this chick?
Me: Oh, I'm the one who controls your destiny! Nice to meet ya!
Faith: No one controls me. I'll do what I want.
Me: Yeah, well, we'll see about that...I do want to be friends, though.
Faith: As long as you don't have me do anything crazy, we're five-by-five.
Me: (giggles, but then looks away) Sure...
Buffy: Who's she?
Me: Oh, she's your sister.
Buffy: I don't have a sister.
Me: Sister-Slayer, I mean.
Dawn: Yes she does have a sister! Me!
Me: Dawn? What are you doing in this season?
Dawn: I'm here to complain! You haven't written me into your sequel yet! Five chapters you've written and I'm not in one of them!
Me: Sorry! I promise you're in chapter 6!
Wesley: Will someone please explain what's going on?
Me: Uh...no. Don't have time. This disclaimer ended up being much longer than intended.
Wesley: (pouts) Bollocks.
Eye of the Beholder Chapter 19
"Faith, Hope, and Trick"
The rest of the summer was spent mending relationships.
Buffy and Angel eventually managed to fight about everything they needed to, and came out of it stronger and with a better understanding of each other. They weren't perfect, and for once they didn't try to be. Angel was on his way to accepting the gift he'd been given, a permanent soul and Buffy. Buffy was working toward a new maturity and understanding of life in general. They were both making progress.
Xander had been troublesome. He and Buffy had fought and fought and fought until they were fighting about fighting. Buffy was reduced to tears, and that's when Angel had cut in.
Buffy still didn't know what Angel had said to Xander, but they hadn't fought since.
Willow was closer to Buffy than ever. The past months had torn them apart and brought them back together at the same time. Willow was the constant in Buffy's life. Boy talk, sleepovers, double fudge chocolate mint-chip ice cream. Day to day girly activities that let Buffy be a seventeen year old girl.
Oz and Angel had struck up an odd sort of friendship. One night, Angel had slipped out of bed without Buffy noticing and had gone out. It was just one of those things he did sometimes. Can't sleep, go skulk around the cemeteries or the woods, maybe stake a vamp along the way. Only this time he hadn't run into a vamp. He'd run into a werewolf, specifically Oz, who seemed to be set on attacking a man with a gun.
Using all his skills and just a little bit of luck he didn't know he had, Angel had managed to save the guy with the gun from Oz, and subsequently save Oz from the guy with the gun. When the guy had regained consciousness, Angel had learned that his name was Cain and that he was a werewolf hunter. Of course, then Cain had tried to kill Angel, who in turn knocked him unconscious again, and tossed him in his truck.
By the end of that night, Angel had managed to save Oz, get him back to cage in the library, fix the cage, get back to his apartment, slide into bed, and pull Buffy into his arms—all without her knowing. Angel considered it one of his best lurking/sneaking moments and was quite proud of himself.
Angel had also found another ally in Wesley. After a few weeks, Wesley had grown confident enough to strike up a conversation with Angel, and to really try and get to know him. Not the Angel or Angelus that Wesley knew from books, but the real Angel. This was just slightly intimidating. Sure, he'd talked to Angel in London…but Angel had been in a cell, far from strangling distance...well, for the most part…
It was odd to Angel, but he found himself developing a sort of brotherly love for the young Watcher. Buffy joked that he must be rubbing off on Wesley because within weeks of coming to Sunnydale, Wesley had bought a leather jacket. Buffy thought it was a step in the right direction, while Angel worried how far Wesley would take the 'leather is cool and badass' look.
Giles was quiet and observant. He simply watched, mentally taking notes. Physically, he was healed. Emotionally, he was still mending. Angel hadn't stepped out of the line Giles had drawn yet, and that was good for both Angel and Giles.
The rest of Giles' time was spent with Wesley, the two Englishmen banding together to drink tea and read old books among other Watcher-y things. They both sat down at the end of each month and wrote up the report together, carefully omitting certain details of the happenings of Sunnydale. Although the Council know knew what went on in Sunnydale, both in Buffy's Slaying and personal life, Giles and Wesley didn't think they could be too careful, and though a part of Wesley was still hesitant to 'lie' to an organization that he had believed in for so long, a larger part of him felt a strong sense of loyalty to the first true friends he'd had.
The summer months gave way to fall and then it was time for school to resume…for everyone except Buffy.
Snyder was being a big pain in the ass. He was refusing to let Buffy back into school, even if the murder charges against Buffy had long ago been dropped. It was because he didn't like her and nothing more. Giles had 'talked' to him, and Buffy was pretty sure Angel had done something to scare him because Willow had come home saying that Snyder had been looking over his shoulder every few seconds and jumping at anything that was unexpected.
When confronted with this information Angel firmly denied doing anything to scare Snyder; and Buffy would probably have believed him if it weren't for the childish, mischievous glee shining in his eyes.
All of this led to the reason that Buffy was spreading out a blanket on the grass, setting up a picnic lunch right across from the school. Seniors were allowed to eat off campus, and Buffy knew that Willow, while nervous about getting in trouble, would still be unable to deny the thrill of breaking a previous rule that no longer applied to her. She was a senior! They were all seniors. Well, Buffy supposed that technically she wasn't a senior…but she was in spirit and that's what counted.
Buffy took care to spread the food out along the blanket, leaving room for people to sit if they so chose. She'd made all the tasty treats herself and she was quite proud, especially since Angel had been with her at the time and had thought it was funny to distract her in a variety of ways.
Buffy smiled to herself as she continued to lay out the food on the blanket. One of the many things she was enjoying about a permanently ensouled Angel was his playful side. It was a side of him that she was just truly discovering and she loved it. Angel's playful moments were currently few, but Buffy committed each one to memory and hoped that as time went on she'd see a playful Angel more often.
Soft footsteps on the grass and laughing voices on the wind reached Buffy's ears, and she looked up as her friends made their way toward her. Buffy was hit with a brief flash of longing when she saw them coupled off—Xander with Cordelia, and then Oz with Willow, but she shook it off. She'd see Angel in just a few hours, less depending on how long she stayed or if she decided to sneak into the library to surprise Wes and Giles.
"Buffy," Xander smiled as he sat down on the blanket. "Banned from campus, but not from our hearts! How are you, and what's for lunch?"
"Oh, I just threw a few things together," Buffy shrugged with a grin as she remembered a particular instance with flour and Angel.
"When did you become Martha Stewart?" Cordelia asked, sounding mildly impressed to Buffy's ears.
Buffy smirked. "First of all, Martha Stewart knows jack about hand-cut prosciutto," she said as she passed out water bottles.
"I don't believe she slays either," Xander quipped with an easy smile, not a trace of his previous antagonism present on his features.
"Oh, I hear she can, but she doesn't like to," Oz spoke up calmly before taking a sip of his drink.
Buffy didn't know whether Oz was serious or not, but she just rolled with it, and shrugged. "Second of all," she said as she twisted the lid off her drink. "Why waste too much time on my hands since I got kicked out of school?"
Willow raised her eyebrows at Buffy, a small knowing smile pulling at her lips. Buffy caught her eye and blushed ever so slightly. They'd recently had a girls night, complete with boy talk…which had ended up being an Angel talk, which meant that Willow knew stuff that only best friends know. Buffy was beginning to wonder if she'd said too much, and Willow would forever have the best blackmail.
"Oh, I know they'll let you back in," Willow smiled before taking a drink.
Xander, completely oblivious to his two best friends' shared look asked, "Don't you and your mom have a meeting with Principal Snyder?"
Buffy frowned. "We're seeing Snyde-Man tomorrow."
Willow's eyes lit up mischievously as she spotted a particular someone. "Ooo, Scott Hope at eleven o' clock," she said playfully, causing Buffy to raise her eyebrows and follow Willow's line of sight.
"He likes you," Willow said in a teasing, sing-song voice. "He wanted to ask you out last year, you know."
Buffy rolled her eyes, giving Scott one last look before helping herself to some prosciutto. "Huh," she said noncommittally, wondering idly if Angel was still at her house or if he'd managed to get back to his apartment.
"He's going to come over here," Cordelia said knowingly, causing Xander to look at her. "What?" Cordelia shrugged at his questioning look. "I just see these types of things happening, okay?"
"You're not psychic," Xander shook his head, but nonetheless grinned at her. "Bet you five bucks he won't come over."
Cordelia scoffed, but shrugged. "Fine, you owe me five bucks then."
Sure enough, not two minutes later, Scott started to make his way over to them. Buffy looked at Willow, wide-eyed. "What do I do?"
"Do that thing with your mouth that boys like," Willow answered, immediately backtracking when she saw Buffy's scandalized, yet somewhat embarrassed look. "I didn't mean the bad thing you do with your mouth," Willow said quickly. "I meant the little half-smile…" she trailed off to faux glare at Oz. "You're supposed to stop me when I do that," she scolded.
Oz merely smiled. "I like it when you do that."
Scott reached them then, but only stopped for a moment. "Hi, Buffy," he smiled looking slightly nervous.
"Hi," Buffy returned with a slight smile that probably came off as shy.
They were all quiet as they watched Scott Hope walk away. Once he was out of earshot, Willow spoke up. "I think that went well," she said. "Don't you think? Did you do that little half-smile thing?" she joked.
"Look at Buff," Xander shook his head with mock solemnity. "Unwittingly snaring Scott Hope with just a little half-smile, you little slut," he teased, laughing when Buffy punched him in the arm. A second after the initial contact though, Xander realized he was in true pain. "Okay, ow," he complained half-heartedly, rubbing his arm.
"Ha ha," Buffy deadpanned, before rolling her eyes and sending a smile Xander's way. "I'm in a very happy relationship. It's a forever kind of thing."
An easy going beat resounded off the walls of the Bronze, and Buffy couldn't stop smiling. The day had turned out better than she'd hoped. She'd woken up to Angel kissing his way down her body (what a fantastic way to wake up!). After a particularly passionate session of love making, Buffy had willed her happily sated self out of bed, despite Angel's protests and started making lunch for her friends. Of course, Angel had then decided that he'd try to distract her. A kiss here, a whispered word there…but Buffy had managed. Angel, not to be diverted or ignored, began a more straightforward approach. Like flicking flour in her face when she turned around to put the milk back in the fridge…this had resulted half a bag of flour ending up on Angel's head.
Lunch had gone great. It had been fun talking to her friends and just hanging out. When the bell had rung, Buffy had gone with her mother to see Snyder. Summers' women were no match for men, and both Buffy and Joyce put Snyder in his sniveling place. Buffy was back in school.
After the meeting, Buffy had asked her mother to drop her off at Angel's apartment, which, to Joyce's credit, did not cause an argument. When Joyce had first discovered that Buffy spent the vast majority of her nights with Angel, she'd been concerned. Was it healthy? Didn't they want a little space every now and then? Of course, what Joyce was really avoiding was what she knew was happening when Buffy went over to Angel's apartment. As a mother, she really didn't want to think about her daughter having sex with her two-hundred and something year-old ensouled vampire boyfriend.
"Do you see them?" Buffy asked Angel as they wound their way through the crowd, looking for their friends.
Angel scanned the crowd, and spotted the back of Willow's head. "There," he said as he took her hand and began to lead her forward.
Buffy swayed slightly to the music, and Angel couldn't help but smile at the sight. He loved watching her dance, and often wondered what it would be like to dance with her. They'd really only danced once, and it hadn't been a real dance, just a gentle sway to a slow song.
Angel knew how to dance. Waltz. Tango. Quickstep. All the classics. But dancing had changed…a lot. The idea of teaching Buffy to waltz popped into his head, immediately followed by Buffy in a beautiful dress and Angel decided that eventually, he would make that idea reality.
As they neared the booth, they saw that Oz and Willow occupied one side, although at the moment they were currently more occupied with each other. Lips were getting busy.
Buffy smirked as they approached, noticing that neither Oz nor Willow had noticed their arrival. She knew what it was like to be completely oblivious to the world, instead focusing solely on one person. In her case, this person was Angel. In Willow's case, this person was most definitely Oz.
"Don't let us interrupt," Buffy smirked as she and Angel slid in to the opposite side of the booth.
Oz and Willow looked up at them, a slightly dazed, happy smile on Willow's face. "Hey, Buffy! Hey, Angel," she greeted cheerily as she took a sip of her drink that was in front of her.
Buffy smirked, "Hello to you too," she greeted as she began swaying to the music again in her seat.
Willow's eyes narrowed slightly and a small smile pulled at the redhead's lips as she studied her friend's face. It was a look she'd come to recognize since Buffy and Angel's return from London. "Are you…" she began before looking at Oz. "Is she all glowy?"
Buffy rolled her eyes, knowing what Willow was alluding to. Willow was right of course, Buffy supposed she was probably glowy. Angel and certain activities tended to bring about glowyness.
"Yeah, I suspect happiness," Oz teased, though he remained completely straight-faced except for the very slight quirk of his lips.
Buffy could have laughed at how embarrassed, and yet smug, Angel looked. She put a comforting hand on his thigh under the table and let her head rest on his shoulder. "Eh, passed my English exam, hangin' with my friends," Buffy told them. It was the truth. Not necessarily the reason she was all glowy—that was all due to the wonderfully talented person beside her. "Hello my life, how I've missed you," Buffy joked.
Suddenly, Willow looked up and smiled. "Hi, Scott."
Both Buffy and Angel looked up. Immediately, Angel sized the boy up, and it took him all of a second to decide that 'Scott' wasn't a threat, just an annoyance. But nonetheless, just for fun and because he could, Angel narrowed his eyes at the boy, silently asking the boy why the hell he was here.
It worked, and Scott immediately looked down and anywhere but Angel. This caused Angel to smirk slightly, and Buffy squeezed his thigh. The action was meant to be a warning, to tell him to stop intimidating Scott…but that wasn't necessarily the first thing that popped into Angel's mind.
"Um, what are you doing here?" Willow asked sounding slightly awkward.
Scott looked up at Willow, grateful to have a safe place to look. He could still feeling Angel's glare on him though, and it really gave him the creeps and the distinct feeling to run for his life. "Uh, you mentioned that you and Buffy would be here tonight…"
"Oh," Willow said lamely, shooting an apologizing glance at Buffy, who was glaring at her.
Scott glanced at Buffy bravely for a moment, but then Angel leaned back in the booth and threw his arm oh, so casually around Buffy's shoulders, pulling her close. Scott promptly lost all the courage he had.
"Um, hi Buffy," he managed, glancing nervously at Angel, noting how he looked like he could snap him like a twig if he so chose. "Bye," he said quickly before scurrying away, feeling like he had just escaped a life threatening situation.
The moment Scott was gone, Buffy glared at Angel. "Why'd you do that?"
"What?" Angel asked innocently.
"You went all possessive, caveman on me," Buffy scolded. "Not very attractive."
"I thought it was," Willow spoke up, and Oz looked at her questioningly.
"Something you want to tell me, baby?" he asked.
"Oh, don't worry," Willow smiled as she gave him a solid kiss on the cheek. "I'm a werewolf kinda girl."
"So should I growl anytime a guy hits on you?" Oz joked half-heartedly.
Willow's eyes lit up. "Could you?"
Oz seemed to debate the question seriously. "For you? Anything."
"Aw, that's so sweet," Buffy smiled teasingly. "Who knew werewolves were so sentimental."
Willow was about to say more, but then Cordelia and Xander arrived.
"Whoa, check out Slut-O-Rama and Disco Dave," Cordelia said pointing looking towards a dark haired girl dressed in black leather who was dancing with a guy that was clearly sporting a seventies vibe, dancing far too fast for the relatively slow song.
"What was the last thing that guy danced to?" Cordelia continued as she and Xander took seats on top of a low table. "K.C. and the Sunshine Band?"
Buffy studied the couple closely, her Slayer sense telling her that all was not as it seemed. Her suspicions were sufficiently confirmed in her mind, when the couple went outside, the possibly undead man saying goodbye to a friend.
"I don't think that guy exactly thrives on sunshine," Buffy stated, glancing at Angel who looked to be thinking along the same lines.
Wordlessly, Angel got out of the booth and waited for Buffy to get out too. Seeing the two of them get up and reading their intentions to follow the couple, Willow and Oz and the rest of the Scoobies followed them out as they went in search for the young couple.
They moved passed Scott, none of them noting his presence except for Angel, who glared in the boy's direction, efficiently sending the meddlesome boy on his way. Really, Angel couldn't blame the boy for liking Buffy. Angel liked Buffy, too…but Buffy was his, and he'd never been one to share. Buffy was his.
Once they were outside, Buffy looked around. "Where'd she go?"
Buffy took a few steps down a dark alley, knowing that they were a popular place for vamps to do their feeding—cliché, but effective nevertheless.
"I bet it's nothing," Cordelia said as she looked around and saw nothing. "They're probably just making out."
As if on cue, all of them heard a girl's loud complaining tone, "Hey!"
Immediately, Xander and Angel withdrew a stake. Buffy promptly snatched the stake out of Xander's hands, ignoring his pout. She and Angel glanced at each other and then they were running in the direction of the shout, the Scoobies hurried steps echoing on the pavement behind them.
"That's not what it sounds like," Willow said, referring to Cordelia's earlier comment as they ran behind Buffy. "Unless I'm doing it wrong."
Buffy, Angel, and the Scoobies all rounded the corner just in time to see the dark haired girl deliver a vicious roundhouse kick to the now apparent vamp. The unknown girl looked up, hearing their approach. "It's okay, I got it," she assured them when she saw their stakes. "You're, uh, Buffy, right?"
Buffy stared bewildered at the girl in front of her. How did she know her name? Who was she? Then, Buffy noticed the vampire the girl had been fighting was sneaking up behind her. However, before Buffy could shout a warning, the vamp's arms were around the girl's shoulders. This didn't bother the girl though, and she simply threw her head back, head-butting the offended vamp before twisting his arm behind him and shoving him against the chain-link fence.
The girl looked back up at Buffy as if nothing had happened, though she wore a grin. "I'm Faith."
"I'm just going out on a limb here, but I think there's a new Slayer in town," Oz murmured to Willow, who merely nodded.
Everyone watched as Faith fought the vampire, all of them too shocked to step in and lend a hand. The vampire rolled away from Faith when she flipped him over her shoulder, and Faith took the time to grab the stake from Buffy's hand.
"Mind if I borrow this?" she asked and without waiting for a reply, she took the stake and promptly drove it into the vampire's heart.
All the Scoobies stared at Faith as the vamp dissolved to dust. "Thanks B," Faith grinned, returning the stake, and casting an unmistakable appreciative glance at Angel. "Couldn't have done it without you," she said before walking past them, leaving Buffy, Angel, and Scoobies confused and curious.
And...break! I did change a few things around, time-wise. Cain and that mess has already happened. I thought it was a good chance to give Angel some guy allies in the Scoobies, though that really only applies to Oz. Wesley, of course, was a given, but Oz is just too cool to be left out! Angel, Oz, and Wesley...that's an odd bunch, isn't it? lol
Oh, and a line from the AISHB sequel, Chapter 1!
"Get him Buffy!" - Cordy
P.S. I have yet to finish writing the next chapter. So, if it's not up on Friday, I warned you.
Lots of love,
ArthursCamelot