What Are Friends For?

Chapter 4

Part 1

Elizabeth was so happy to be going home. She urged Buffy to talk to her mother. With tears in her eyes, Buffy hugged Joyce and thanked her for getting her released from the hospital.

Once they were back at home it was soon obvious that things were still deteriorating between Joyce and Hank. Joyce informed Buffy that her parents were getting divorced and the two of them were moving to Sunnydale.

"But Mom, how will we live? You don't have a job. I can get an after school job, but I won't make enough money to support us."

"Don't worry, honey, I am getting enough from the divorce settlement to make a nice down payment on a house for us and to acquire the Sunnydale Art Gallery. We'll be fine."

And they were fine...for a while...until Buffy fully accepted her destiny as a vampire slayer. She met and eventually accepted Giles as her watcher; she met Willow and Xander and they became her friends; and she met Angel, a vampire with a soul, for whom she felt an immediate attraction.

Elizabeth felt an attraction for Angel as well, but there was something off about him. In him she recognized a kindred spirit and it was not Angel per se that attracted her; it was Angelus. At first she didn't understand it. Why would she be attracted to the monster that Angel had described to Buffy.

Then it dawned on her - he was Angel's darker side, just as she was Buffy's darker side. The question was...Did he want to protect Angel as she wanted to protect Buffy or did he want to destroy Angel so that he could be dominant, all the time?

Elizabeth found that she could communicate with Angelus when Angel and Buffy were asleep. At first he thought that the slayer was speaking to him so he was his usual rude and obnoxious self.

Elizabeth set him straight right away.

"Now you listen to me you loud mouthed, arrogant demon; I'm not Buffy and I won't tolerate your disrespect and your vulgar mouth. I am Elizabeth. Just as you and Angel share the same body, Buffy and I share the same body, but we are definitely not the same person. I am as different from Buffy as you are from Angel. The major difference between you and me is that while you hate Angel, I love Buffy. She is my best friend and I will not let anyone or anything harm her if I can prevent it."

Angelus couldn't help himself; he found himself attracted to this no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners type of female. She was a refreshing change from what he saw as weakness in the soul's slayer.

"Let me get this straight. You're a slayer, too?"

Elizabeth had to get Angelus to see the differences and similarities between herself and Buffy compared to the same between himself and Angel.

"Think of it this way - you and Angel have the same skills, but you are a better fighter. It's not the skill-set, it's the mindset."

"That's a pansy-assed way of putting it. You mean I don't hold back when I fight; I'm more ruthless, more vicious, and I go for the kill."

"I like my way of putting it better."

Angelus laughed, a true light-hearted laugh for the first time in a very long time. "I think you and I are going to get along very well."

"I can tell you now, I'm not going to any operas or ballets."

He laughed again. "We'll see."

Part 2

Over the next several months as Angel and Buffy got closer, so did Angelus and Elizabeth. Buffy was aware of Elizabeth's feelings for Angelus and she promised to speak to Angel about time-sharing with his resident demon. At first Angel balked at the idea because he thought that Buffy was infatuated with Angelus.

"Oh, please. I thought you knew me better than that."

"Well then, why..."

"Angel, I think it is time you met someone, a good friend of mine."

When Buffy explained Elizabeth's existence to Angel, he was skeptical at first, but as soon as Elizabeth presented herself, he knew right away that she was not Buffy. He could see it in her eyes when she looked at him.

"This is amazing; does anyone else know that you exist?"

"Only Buffy, Hank Summers and the doctor at the asylum where he had us confined know about me."

After thinking things over, Angel said, "Give me time to come to terms with this. Angelus and I need to talk, to come to an agreement on the conditions of his release. As long as he agrees to the conditions and sticks to them, then I think we might be able to work something out."

"I'll see to it that he behaves himself like a good little demon, don't worry."

Angel chuckled as he listened to Angelus' response to Elizabeth's words. "He didn't like that."

Elizabeth laughed. "I knew he wouldn't."

Included in the pact that the two vampires and the two slayers agreed upon were the conditions that Angelus would at no time attack humans, he would not drink from Elizabeth and he would always return control back to Angel at the agreed upon time. Angelus knew that he could not expect to get an agreement any better than that.

Part 3

There were times when Elizabeth had to step in and make things clear with Buffy's friends. For example, just as Angelus would not tolerate disrespect from anyone, neither would she, not for Buffy and not for Angel (Angelus). In the beginning when she asserted herself on Buffy's behalf, there was friction between her and Buffy's friends until she made it clear where she (Buffy) stood. Her friends, Willow first, and begrudgingly, Xander, came to understand and accept her as the slayer that she was. Giles also gained an unspoken respect for his slayer.

With Elizabeth's help, Buffy's grades returned to what they were at Hemery High before she became the slayer. Buffy's confidence soared and her mother was more than pleased. Her father eventually came around and acknowledged that he had made a mistake in having her committed to an insane asylum. Buffy forgave him, but Elizabeth was not so easily persuaded and she let him know exactly what she thought of him. Her only concession was that she would not interfere if Buffy wanted to spend time with him as long as he 'behaved himself'.

Joyce still was not aware that Elizabeth existed.

One night Angel was injured when he came to Buffy's rescue as she was attacked by three warrior vampires. They escaped back to her house where she bandaged his wound despite his protest. The next day when Buffy fell asleep in class, Angelus taunted Elizabeth with, "I knew you couldn't wait to get your hot little hands on my body. You just couldn't help yourself, could you?"

"Oh give it up. That was Buffy bandaging Angel and you know it. She was worried about him; you could see she was almost in tears."

"Yeah, yeah, but that was you rubbing your hands over my back, admiring my tattoo."

"If you're going to keep that up, I'll just leave."

"NO," Angelus said a little too anxiously; then more calmly, "Don't go. I miss you when you're not here."

She smiled and kissed him. It surprised him but he recovered quickly, put his arms around her and kissed her thoroughly. Buffy woke up abruptly, thinking she was dreaming about kissing Angel.