What Are Friends For?

Chapter 5

Part 1

'Wow! That was some kiss. I wonder why Angel's never kissed me like that in real life? Maybe he wants to but is just being a gentleman. Maybe I should give him a little nudge in that direction.'

Two weeks later, on the weekend of Buffy's seventeenth birthday, Joyce was out of town and Angel spent most of the weekend with Buffy. Saturday afternoon they were making out on the sofa when they were supposed to be watching a movie and Buffy decided it was time to 'give him a little nudge'. As things started to heat up, Angel broke away and said. "Buffy, I think we'd better stop."

"I don't want to stop."

She tried to kiss him again, but he briefly put an index finger against her lips.

"Are you sure? Because if we continue the way we're going, I don't think I'll be able to hold off much longer."

Her reply was a kiss as she remembered dreaming in class.

Knowing full well if she said 'no', he was likely to combust right there, Angel asked again, with a strangled voice, "Are you really sure about this?"

Buffy's reply was to free herself from his arms and lead him up the stairs to her bedroom.

Sometime during the night, Angel woke up in agony; he quickly dressed and managed to get outside before he was overcome from the pain. He tried to call Buffy who was sound asleep; Elizabeth heard him instead. By the time she got outside, a woman was approaching Angel to see if he was all right.

"It's all right," Elizabeth told the woman; "I'll take care of him."

She turned to what she realized was Angelus.

"What happened? How did you get free?"

"I don't know. Who cares? I'm free. Do you know what this means?"

"Yeah. It means we are going back inside and finish what they started and you can turn control back over to Angel just like we all agreed."

Angelus just looked at her - sure he cared for her, not loved her, cared for her - but he was not giving up this chance at freedom for anyone, not even Elizabeth.

"And why would I do that? You can't expect me to give up my first chance at real freedom in nearly one-hundred years because of some agreement I made with the soul. I won't do it - not for you, not for anyone or anything."

"That's your final decision?" She tried to control the quiver in her voice.

"What?"

"I told you when we first met, I love Buffy; I will not let anything happen to her if I can prevent it. And remember: I can fight just as dirty as you can."

Without answering, she turned around and headed toward the house.

"Where are you going?"

"Back inside. Buffy is still asleep. I have to let her know what has happened and that you will be coming after her."

"Elizabeth, I'm not coming after the slayer. Look, there is something that I have to do. I probably won't be back before tomorrow night."

Part 2

She watched Angelus walk away and went into the house. Instead of waking Buffy, she went to the kitchen phone and dialed the number for Jenny Calendar.

When Jenny answered the phone, Elizabeth didn't apologize for the late night call, instead she explained who she was and what had happened.

"You knew this was a possibility, didn't you?"

When Jenny started to deny the accusation, Elizabeth cut her off. "Spare me your denial. Angel may not know who you are, but I assure you, Angelus does; he recognized you as being from the clan that cursed him with a soul. And trust me, he has no love in his heart for you. You should have told us about this, Jenny; you could have prevented this. Why didn't you?"

Jenny did not answer her.

"You don't have to answer me, I can guess. You didn't want to risk your relationship with Giles when he found out that you hid your background from him as well as your real purpose for being in Sunnydale."

Without admitting what Elizabeth had said was true, Jenny tried to retain her dignity by asking, "What do you want from me?"

"Do you have a spell to revoke an invitation to a vampire?"

"Yes, but there are ingredients needed."

"I don't need the ingredients; I just need the words."

"You are that powerful?"

"Just give me the words, Jenny."

"All right; just a minute."

Jenny retrieved a book from her bookshelf, returned to the phone and read the words of the spell to Elizabeth.

"Do you want me to let Rupert know what has happened?"

"Do you want him to know who you really are?"

"N-No."

"You have your answer. Thanks for the spell."

Elizabeth spoke the words given to her by Jenny and headed for bed. She wanted to believe Angelus when he said he would not come after the slayer, but she wasn't taking any chances with Buffy's safety. At least now she could be confident that Buffy was safe in her own home because, now that the spell was done, she did not have to worry about Angelus or his childer.

Part 3

Mid-morning on Sunday Elizabeth had just finished explaining to Buffy what had happened with Angel's soul when the phone rang. It was Angelus.

"Angelus, it's Elizabeth."

"Good. What time is Joyce due back home today?"

"Buffy received a call from her this morning. She needs to be away for a few more days. She will call tonight to let Buffy know how long."

"Good. The soul and I have had a long talk."

"Wait a minute I thought the soul was gone."

"No, he 's still here, just not in control. We have agreed to a fifty-fifty time share of the body."

"Really?" Elizabeth was ecstatic. "I am so happy. I hope Buffy will not be too upset."

"Humph, she'd better be happy that I'm willing to give them fifty percent."

"You know what this means, don't you? You're going to have to play nice a lot of the time so that her friends and watcher won't know who you really are."

"Aw damn."

Elizabeth laughed. "I knew you hadn't thought about that."