Chapter 19: The Start Of New Adventures For Buffy.
Buffy sat in the passenger seat in Angel's car, quietly. She hadn't said anything since he left her bedroom. She felt like the tension in the air was to thick- she didn't even know what to say to him. She was scared he might get angry at her again and she never wanted to be at the receiving end of his anger again. It seemed like a long ride to the Army Base.
Angel glanced over at her. "You have your ID right? They are going to ask for it at the gate."
Buffy nodded, getting her ID out of her purse and handing it to him.
Angel pulled up and gave the man their ID's he checked them, seeing it was Angelus he nodded and said "Have a good day, Sergeant Angelus." Buffy watched as the younger officer saluted Angel. They drove forward.
Buffy looked around, she had never been on an Army Base before and never thought she would. This place was beautiful. Bigger then she expected too. "Marshall Road in Fort Marshall?" Buffy commented softly. It was the first think she had said to him since they were in her room, he gave her a small smile.
"I said the same thing the first time I drove in here." He said looking over at her. She didn't respond back though, she just looked out her window. She looked sad. Confused. And a little amazed by what she was seeing.
As they drove threw the Army Base Buffy saw houses, gas stations, large buildings with weird numbers on them, stores and big trucks. Buffy looked over as she saw a huge tank with a gun on top of it being driven down the street. She didn't know what she expected to see once she was on Base but she knew it wasn't this. This was like a little town of its own. They had already passed a Burger King, McDonalds, a clothing store, a salon, a food store, a night club and what looked like a mall. All this place needed was a Expresso Pump and she could live here.
"This place have everything?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah." He said looking over at her and then back at the road. "It has restaurants, stores, gas stations- everything someone would need to live. If someone lives on base, they hardly ever have to leave."
They pulled into a parking lot and they got out. Angel walked over to her side of the car to open the door for her but she had done it herself so instead her softly took her hand in his. Buffy looked down at their hands but didn't say anything. Angel lead her into a building and he showed the woman his ID. He told Buffy to wait a minute because he had to sign her in. 'Wow, security is tight here.' She thought.
After he signed her in he took her hand again and they walked around. He pointed out some cute clothes he thought she might like but she didn't say anything, she just nodded.
They walked up to a counter that had cell phones displayed, there were so many. Angel pointed some out and she didn't say anything. He was about to give up even trying to talk to her when he saw Buffy look over at a phone and touch the screen. He walked over to her and asked her if she wanted it. She just looked down replying. "No thank you."
He called the woman over that was working at the counter and told her that they would take two of the phones.
"Angelus, no." Buffy started to say, he whipped his head towards her and she stopped talking. After a few second she whispered. "It costs a lot."
"You called me Angelus." He commented quietly.
The woman came back with two boxes and starting to ring the phones up. She told Angel a little about the phone. It was the newest touch screen phone and was widely popular now, almost as popular as the iphone. It was called The Droid.
"Now lets see if I can understand it well enough to use it." He joked with the sales woman.
She opened one of the phones and turned it on for Angel, showing him how to use it. Buffy walked away a little not wanting to be there when the woman started to openly flirt with him but she didn't want to be to far away so she could hear what they were saying.
They stood there for almost an hour. He was still talking to the sales woman. Buffy was pretending to look at all the different phones but she was trying to hear what they were saying. She couldn't hear everything and it was upsetting her. What was upsetting her even more was that he was ignoring her. She didn't exactly want to talk to him- she was to afraid to say something to make him angry but she didn't like that he wasn't trying to get her to talk to him. It was all very confusing to Buffy. She just wanted things to go back to the way they used to be… but she didn't see that every happening. It was the best 5 days of her life that she would never get back. 'Maybe I am just doomed to be miserable.' she thought. Buffy looked over at Angel and saw that the woman was doing something to one of the phones. She walked closer to the counter and heard the woman telling him she was adding her number to his address book just in case he needed anymore help. Buffy looked away, hurt. Could the woman not see that Buffy was right there with him!
Finally, Angel walked up to Buffy. He didn't say anything though, just raised his eye brows in question. Buffy's lower lip began to tremble but she didn't want to cry there. She was a complete and total mess.
Angel nodded his head towards the door to tell her they were leaving. Once they got in the car he looked at her. "You called me Angelus in there."
Buffy looked down at her hands in her lap. She didn't like feeling like this. If this was how the next 11 months were going to be, she couldn't do it. She couldn't live in fear. Maybe she was right before, she shouldn't get involved with military men.
"You never call me Angelus." He said quietly looking straight forward out of the windshield. When he didn't get an answer out of her he asked, "Are you hungry?"
She didn't want to give him the wrong answer even though she was starving, so looking down she whispered. "Are you?"
Angel nodded and started up the car. He drove for about 10 minutes and then pulled into a Buffalo Wild Wings. He remembered when Buffy first moved in she had told them that she loved Buffalo Wild Wings.
When they were seated the waitress asked what they wanted to drink. Angel ordered a beer, Buffy was talking so quietly the waitress could hardly hear her when she replied "Water."
Once the young woman left Angel looked at Buffy for a minute. "You could have something other then water." He told her.
Buffy glanced up at him. "Sorry." She said.
"What are you sorry about?" He asked softly.
"I didn't mean to upset you." She said with a tear in her eye.
"I'm not upset baby. Look at me." He said hooking his pointer finger on her chin and guiding her face up. She was crying again, it made him feel like crying. "Don't cry."
She tried to stop the tears from silently falling.
It had been a week since Buffy and Angel got their new phones. Things still weren't back to normal but Angel liked to think they were getting there. He often joked to Buffy that the phone was to high tech for him and she would give him a weak smile every time.
Buffy was keeping busy with work. She hardly talked to Angel, she wouldn't speak to Gunn and she only spoke to Spike when she really hard to. He was just annoying. She talked to Doyle though. She told him she was scared of making Angelus mad and she didn't want him to have any reason to get mad at her. It was just easier to keep quiet. Doyle had asked Buffy why she was hardly home anymore and she simply replied Tom Cruz. He was confused so she went into further detail about a case she was working on about a woman who was looking for a man she knew named Tom Cruz but she thought she was close to cracking it.
One night she came home pretty late and she found Angel in her room. He was fixing the wall. She didn't know if Doyle had bugged him enough times to get him to do it or if he actually wanted to fix it. She told Angel thank you . Before he had fixed it every time she looked at the wall she would think about that day. It was like a constant reminder not to make him angry.
Now, it was Friday. Buffy sat at her desk at Mars Investigations looking at her computer screen. She had found Tom Cruz. He was living not to far from the Pier. She was going to call her client but sat there thinking about something Keith had said. He told her to drop the case, that their services were no longer needed but she couldn't drop the case. At first she didn't like the woman, she had found her creepy and a little obsessed with the guy but with her love life hanging by a thread she wanted to help someone else make their love lives better, she wanted someone to be happy. So she picked up the phone to call the woman.
"Hi, Ms. Boca, this is Buffy from Mars Investigations…. Yes, I did find him. It seems he did a little name change but he matches your picture. I have all his information right here. He is actually living in town. How lucky are you?… I am faxing the address over right n…." The line went dead. Buffy looked at the phone and saw a hand on the receiver. Looking up she saw a pissed off Keith Mars.
"Buffy, I told you to stay out of it." Keith said sternly.
"Yeah I know but you didn't give me a reason." She argued.
"My word should have been enough. I'm your boss!" Keith said turning off the fax machine. "Damn it! It already went threw! Do you have any idea what you just did Buffy? Tom Cruz isn't his real name, and he didn't just change it because it was a cool thing to do. He is in the witness protection program. That woman you just handed him over to has been trying to kill him! He's been on the run for years!"
Buffy's eyes got as big has saucers. "Oh god!" She said and ran out the door. Keith ran after her but she was faster and out of his sight before he even had a chance. He tried calling her but she didn't answer. He called Veronica and explained everything, he told her that he was going to go to the address that Buffy had found and see if he could stop anything from happening if needed. Maybe the FBI would get him out of there before the crazy wind bag could get there.
Veronica was close to Buffy's house so she stopped by there and knocked on the door. Angel open the door.
"Buffy wouldn't by any chance be here, would she?" Veronica asked.
"No, she isn't. Why? What's going on?" Angel asked her.
"Buffy has been working on this case and long story short she helped this crazy mob lady get her hands on a guy in the witness protection program and I was hoping Buffy wouldn't go in there and try to stop anything from happening but I know she went to that house because I know Buffy… and because it world be exactly what I would do!" Veronica rambled.
"Wait, what are you saying?" He asked.
"Buffy could be in some serious trouble. I know you two don't have the best relationship going on now but I'm kind of hoping you will put that aside because having a bad ass guy like yourself on our side wouldn't hurt right now." She explained.
Angel grabbed his keys and ran passed Veronica. "You got the address?" He shouted behind him.
Angel was speeding. It was very clear that he was speeding and anyone going the actual speed limit was pissing him off. He weaved in and out of cars to try to get to the location where they were pretty sure Buffy was. If she was in trouble and something happened to her, Angel would never forgive himself.
He turned the steering wheel suddenly when he almost missed his turn, the breaks screeched and he leave tread marks on the road. He saw a big house and asked in a panic. "This is it" He knew for a fact it was, he didn't know how but he just had a feeling Buffy was there.
Veronica nodded. "It's the address."
"Stay here." He told her.
Angel ran around the car and got something out of his trunk, then ran behind the house carefully so no one could see him. He checked in the windows of the house and didn't see anyone. He was beginning to think no one was even there and his gut feeling was wrong until he came around to the back. He looked into the glass kitchen doors and saw a man and a woman. The man looked scared and the woman looked pissed, he moved to get a better angle of the room and that's what he saw Buffy. She looked like she was trying to talk her way out of something. He looked around to see why Buffy would be so worried and noticed the woman had a gun angled at the mans side. He then saw another man standing at the door way behind Buffy, he also had a gun.
Putting his training to use, he started to look around for an entrance to the house to sneak up on the enemy. Once he got inside he saw two more men that were standing a little behind the man near Buffy. They had guns too. 'Maybe these people really are the mob.' He thought.
Angel couldn't take the men out without alerting everyone else in the house. He looked around as he snuck up behind one of the guys, taking his gun out of the back of his pants where he had stuck it trying to look for a way in. He came up right behind on of the men and hit him in the temple with the butt of the gun. He dropped to the floor causing the other man to look, he saw Angel. Thinking fast, Angel spun around kicking him in the gut, when he doubled over from the force of the blow and hit the man in the nose with the heel of his hand causing his nose to break and the bone to smash into his scull. He stuck his gun back into his pants. Maybe he wouldn't need it after all.
Angel snuck up behind the third man, the one holding a gun on Buffy. He had to be extra careful with this one other wise it could got Buffy her life. Once false move and the man could shoot Buffy. Angel quietly got behind the man and in one swift movement he grabbed the man around the neck from behind and grabbed the other mans gun, holding it to his head. Buffy heard a noise and was startled. Everyone turned to look at the movement.
"Drop it." Angel said to the woman walking closer so he was a little in front of Buffy. If he was in front of her then she was out of harms way. There was no one else behind them that could hurt her and if he was in front of her, he could stop anything before it reached her.
"Who the hell are you?" The woman demanded.
Buffy smiled for the first time, in what felt like a long time. "You don't know who he is, do you? Oh lady, your about to get your ass shot!"
Angel glanced at Buffy. He saw her smile and he smiled too. "I wasn't exactly going to go for the ass, baby. But I can try."
"A lover? You said you didn't have a boyfriend." She said to Buffy.
"Yeah well it looks like we both lied about something, psycho hoe!" Buffy yelled.
Veronica looked around nervously. "Am I just suppose to sit here with my thumb up my ass? Like hell!"
Veronica got out of Angel's car and headed for the house. "He is dating Buffy, I'm sure he knows how she is.. Well we are one in the same."
Veronica walked threw the front door, closing it slowly. She heard Buffy shout and followed the voices. She peaked into the kitchen and saw Ms. Boca, if that was her real name standing next to the man she recognized from the picture Buffy had. She snuck around to the other side of the kitchen waiting for a chance to jump in. When the woman was distracted buy something Buffy said, Veronica got the mans attention and got him out of the way. When Ms. Boca saw Tom leaving she got pissed and aimed the gun. Angel knew it was coming, it was aimed right at Buffy. In what seemed like only one second, Angel moved faster then the speeding bullet. He threw the man forward, stepped in front of Buffy and fired two shots one hit the man in the knee cap and the other went straight into Ms. Boca's head- between the eyes.
The man screamed in pain, looking over at his dead boss on the kitchen floor, her blood pouring out of the bullet hole in her head. He looked up at Angel. "You missed."
Buffy stepped up next to Angel, looking down at the man who had been holding a gun to her. She wrapped her arms around Angel's waist and told the man. "My baby never misses."
"Everybody freeze!" Yelled a man holding a gun wearing a black vest that said FBI. Keith Mars ran up behind the man.
"Well then…." Keith said looking at the four bodies on the floor and then to Buffy, Angel, Veronica and Mr. Tom Cruz.