THE TOUCH OF YOUR HAND – CHAPTER 3

Disclaimers: I don't own any of the characters, much as I wish I did. They belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy, the WB, Fox, etc. etc.

A/N: I apologize for the all-over bolding in Chapter Two. I've done everything I know to correct it, but it just won't go away. :(

Riley was appalled. Cursing silently, he followed her. "God. Buffy, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was someone you knew - "

Buffy whirled on him furiously. "What have you done to him?" A stupid question, since she knew very well what had been done to Angel: He'd been zapped with one of their damned tasers.

She turned back to Angel and began carefully pulling him out from under the concealing bushes. Once he was out in the open Buffy sat on the ground and lifted his head onto her lap, touching his face tenderly. "Are you all right?"

Still caught in the effects of the stun gun, although he thought it was beginning to wear off a trifle, Angel could only utter another incoherent sound. Buffy glared up at Riley. "How long until this wears off?"

Riley hovered helplessly over her. "At least an hour." He looked at her with compassion. "Buffy, this isn't your friend, you know that. He's changed; he's a vampire now. I'm sorry, but the person you knew is gone."

"No," Buffy said evenly. "The person I know is right here. His name is Angel and he's two hundred and forty-five years old. And, yes, he's a vampire."

The look on Riley's face almost made her laugh. Buffy continued, "But this particular vampire got his soul back over a hundred years ago, and since then has fed exclusively on animals." She decided not to complicate things by mentioning either his return as Angelus two years before or the fact that Angel had drunk her own blood one time.

Riley blinked and frowned. "He got his soul back? What do you mean? What's his soul got to do with anything?"

"What?" Buffy stared at him. "Riley, you hunt vampires; you capture them. Don't you know anything about them?"

"I know they're evil and they're killers," Riley answered flatly. "What else do I need to know?

"I thought knowledge was supposed to be power," Buffy retorted sarcastically. "Vampires are demons inhabiting a human body. When someone is turned into a vampire, that someone dies. The demon takes over the dead body but it doesn't get the soul. That's gone, which is why vampires have no conscience, no remorse."

Listening to her, Angel managed the faintest of smiles. She was repeating almost the exact same words he'd used to her four years ago when she'd first discovered he was a vampire. Their eyes met, and Buffy returned his smile. She too remembered. Absently she brushed a small clump of dirt off his hair; her hand lingered, softly caressing.

Angel closed his eyes, loving her presence, her touch, despite his risky situation. He was sure now that the effects of the mysterious weapon were less than they had been. He was able to blink and to move his eyes, his limbs were no longer twitching out of control, and he felt his strength slowly beginning to return.

Buffy went on, with considerable editing. "Angel was given his soul back by a tribe of gypsies, and ever since has tried to atone for the evil he once did. He's killed at least as many vampires as I have, and more than once he's saved my life." Not to mention captured my heart, but somehow I don't think that argument will help right now.

With every word Riley looked more incredulous. "So this guy's a good vampire? Is that what you're telling me?"

"Yes." Buffy looked him straight in the eye. "I'm also telling you that Angel is my friend and no way am I going to let you take him to that lab. You might as well try to take Willow or Xander."

"Did I hear my name?" Willow popped into view and stopped dead at the scene before her. "Angel? Oh my God, what happened?" She dropped to his side. "Are you all right?" When he didn't answer she turned to Buffy. "What's wrong with him?"

"He ran into the soldier boys and got hit with one of their stun guns."

Willow looked at Riley with widened eyes. "You did this to Angel? Oh boy!" Her tone suggested she wouldn't want to be in his shoes as her eyes flicked over to Buffy. Then she frowned. "Stun guns! Is that what you use in your games? Kind of dangerous, don't you think?"

She eyed him sternly, then took a second look at the gun he'd forgotten to conceal. Her eyes suddenly grew wide again. "You're not playing war games, are you?" she asked evenly. "That gun is meant to be used. You were out hunting tonight."

"Uh . . . " Already stunned by the fact that Willow obviously also considered this, this vampire to be a friend, her question caught Riley off guard. He fumbled to find an excuse and looked at Buffy in appeal. She merely raised an eyebrow, pointedly saying nothing. "Well . . ."

"It's to kill vampires with, isn't it?" Willow demanded hotly. "All this war game stuff was just a, a bunch of hooey! You're a vampire hunter! What do you do, collect a bounty on them, like those werewolf hunters?"

"Werewolf hunters?" Riley seemed in a daze. "Bounty?"

Buffy realized that Willow was on the verge of revealing Oz's secret werewolf identity. "Willow, chill. Riley isn't a bounty hunter and the important thing right now is to get Angel away from here before the others get back."

Willow was still visibly seething but let it drop. Turning her back on Riley, she surveyed the recumbent vampire. "Angel, can you move at all?"

With an effort that brought beads of sweat to his face, Angel managed to raise his head about an inch. Riley stiffened in shock. "That's impossible. He should barely be able to blink."

Angel moistened his dry mouth. "Age." The word came out more as a croak than anything, but Buffy understood. She ducked under his arm and pulled him into a more or less upright sitting position.

"I don't think you've captured many two-hundred-year-old vamps, Riley. The older they are, the stronger they are."

Willow came over to Angel's other side and helped Buffy get him standing, then they stopped so Willow could get her breath. Angel was still a dead weight, and even Buffy's Slayer strength was finding it something of a challenge to keep him vertical. They took a step forward. Willow staggered and lost her footing, falling ignominiously to the ground. Angel started to fall too. Buffy cried out and Riley instinctively reached out and caught Angel by the arm, stopping his downward slide.

He pulled the vampire's arm around his neck and met Buffy's gaze. "Where do you want to take him?"

"Where will he be safe from your crew?" Buffy countered. "They'll be here any minute and we can't go far like this."

Riley thought. "There's a maintenance shed on the other side of those trees." He nodded toward a stand of trees about twenty yards away. "I might be able to get it open."

"If you can't, I will," Buffy said briefly. "Let's go." Willow led the way.

That journey across the campus seemed to take forever, with Buffy's every nerve straining to hear if they were being followed. The cloud cover had finally dissipated. Bright moonlight streamed over the campus and the friendly, concealing darkness was no more. Every snapping twig, every far off voice caused her heart to jump in her throat for fear they'd been discovered by the Initiative soldiers. Finally they reached the shed. It was locked, of course. Riley reached into a pocket in his vest. "I have a lock pick."

Buffy shook her head. "We don't have time." She took hold of the door handle and pushed down, hard. It broke with a loud crack! and the door sprang open. Riley blinked. "Hurry," she panted. They got Angel inside and propped him up, sitting, against the wall. He was strong enough now that he could keep himself upright. Willow and Riley then exited the shed, leaving him with Buffy.

"How are you feeling?" Buffy asked him, busily straightening his rumpled clothing.

"Better," he mumbled. "Buffy - " He tried to raise his hand to her cheek.

"Not now," she interrupted. "There's something I have to do first." She got up. Angel's hand fell to his side. He followed her with his eyes as she walked outside to where Riley waited. As they faced one other, Willow tactfully re-joined Angel inside the shed.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked him.

"Yes," Angel said briefly, watching the couple in the doorway. Willow sighed silently, wishing herself out of this complicated triangle but knowing her friends might need her help.

Before Buffy could say anything, Riley pulled the claddagh ring off his finger. "Here. I gathered you'd be wanting him to have this back."

"Thank you," Buffy told him, taking the ring. "What are you going to tell your friends?"

Riley shrugged. "I'll think of something."

"Will you get in trouble for letting him escape?"

Riley met her eyes. "Do you care?"

"Yes," Buffy said simply.

Riley smiled, rather sadly. "Well, that's good to hear. The answer is that I don't know if I'll be in trouble or not." He shrugged again. "I'll just have to see." He turned his head sharply as voices called out nearby. "Quick, get inside with the others. Wait an hour before trying to leave the campus. It should be safe by then."

"Right." Buffy stepped back into the building. They exchanged a long look, then Riley shut the door. He was just in time, for only a moment later Forrest and two other Initiative members came around the corner. Their voices came through the walls clearly.

"Riley! Where have you been? Where's the vamp? Did someone already come for him?"

"No." Riley's voice. "He got away somehow after you left. I've been searching the area for him."

"*What?*" It was Forrest, incredulous. "How could he get away? He was zapped!"

"I don't know how." Riley sounded grim and utterly convincing. "I only know that after everyone finally left I went to check on him and he was gone. Maybe somehow he didn't get the full effects of the gun - or he had some kind of natural immunity or something. I don't know."

"The Professor isn't going to like that," observed an apprehensive voice. "What about this hut? Did you look in here? Hey, the door's broken!"

The door was closed but, since the lock was broken, it hadn't latched. "Yeah, I saw that," Riley said quickly as the soldier reached around him and gave the door a gentle push that swung it open about an inch. "That's why I checked inside. I'd just finished when I heard your voices. He's nowhere around here. Let's search the other side of the campus." Their voices faded as they moved off.

Inside the shed, no one spoke or moved for several minutes, then Buffy cautiously edged over to the door and listened. After a moment she peered out, even more cautiously. "They're gone," she reported softly, closing the door and returning to where the others sat. She knelt down. "But I think we better stay quiet, in case they come back. Or someone else comes along."

"Good job, Riley," Willow murmured. "That was fast thinking. Buffy, what's going on?"

"Not now, Will, please. Later, at Giles'. I promise." Buffy turned to face Angel. "Here." She gave him his ring, helped him put it on his finger. Now that the first shock of seeing him in danger was past, anger began to stir. He didn't wait for her to begin her usual attack.

"Buffy, you're in danger." His voice was a thin whisper, still a tiny bit slurred.

"Gee, there's something new and different," she commented sarcastically. "So, did Doyle have another vision?"

"No." Angel looked away. "Doyle's dead."

Buffy gasped, as did Willow, who had heard of Angel's colleague from her friend. Buffy put her hand on Angel's arm. "I'm so sorry, Angel. What happened?"

He swallowed. "We were trying to save a boatload of half-breed demons from a group of full-bloods out to purify their bloodline. Doyle managed to disable their genocide weapon before they could set it off, but it killed him." His speech was almost back to normal.

"I only met him for a minute," Buffy said sadly, "but he seemed very nice - and I know you were friends."

"Yes," was all Angel said but his flat response held a world of hurt. Buffy squeezed his arm in sympathy. He looked down at her hand and covered it with his own, an act which still took more physical effort than he liked. As always, the heat of her touch seemed to permeate his entire being. The memory of her warm tongue licking melted ice cream off his bare chest during their lost night sprang unbidden to his mind. Assaulted by yet another stabbing ache of loss, his vision grew blurry.

Although he quickly looked away, Buffy noticed. She squeezed his arm again. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I know how much it hurts to lose someone you care about." She meant only to sympathize with him for the loss of his friend, and had actually been thinking of Kendra when she spoke. It wasn't until she heard her own words that she realized how they could be misconstrued.

Angel's dark gaze met hers. The moonlight shone in through a small window, illuminating his face. In his eyes she read a depth of sorrow that shook her. Sorrow and something else, a kind of patient, aching endurance, as if a pitiless Fate had dealt still another blow to this man who'd already shouldered more burdens than most people could bear. Her breath caught in her throat, and the anger she'd automatically summoned in defense against the pain of his presence died a shamefaced death.

"Angel, I didn't mean - that wasn't a dig - " she stammered.

He moved his head slightly, just a fraction, and managed a twisted smile. "I know. It's all right."

Willow could take no more. Being around these two with their hopeless love was almost as painful for her as it was for them. Rising to her feet she murmured, "Buffy, I'm going to take a look outside, see if the coast is clear."

Buffy hesitated. "Riley said to wait an hour."

"I heard him." Willow didn't sound impressed. "I know it's not safe for Angel to leave and you need to stay with him, but there's no reason why I can't go to the dorm and call Giles or Xander. We're going to need a car, aren't we? I mean, if we're taking Angel to Giles' place."

"Well," Buffy glanced at Angel. "Yes."

Angel interrupted. "Willow, there's no need to call anyone. My car is parked in the south visitor's lot."

"Oh. Duh." Willow rolled her eyes. "You have a car; I forgot."

"Here are the keys." Angel fished them out of his pocket with little difficulty and held them out.

"Hey," Willow noted. "You're getting your strength back. That's great."

Buffy took the keys and tossed them to Willow. She caught them, then went to the door and opened it a crack. "Okay, do you guys hear anyone coming?" They all listened, then Angel and Buffy both shook their heads.

"Neither do I. I'll be back soon." Willow smiled reassuringly and slipped outside, pulling the door shut behind her. After a second they heard her moving away.

(End of Part Three)