That night at the Bronze, Ford seemed to have had no trouble finding the place on his own. It wasn't a very big town, so small wonder he'd been able to find the most popular club here. He invited us (Willow, Xander, and I) to play a game of pool. And by that I assumed he meant to show off.

I wasn't entirely wrong, but I suppose he meant it to be good-natured.

I didn't join in because last time I played I accidentally broke the table…and three pool cues…and besides I'm more comfortable with snooker, anyway.

I smelled Buffy before I saw her. Which was actually pretty impressive, considering she'd put on quite a lot of perfume so it was hard to catch her true scent at all. Her scent, combined with every other scent in the Bronze: sweat, booze, cheap lipstick, equally cheap perfume, vomit, piss, etc. was giving me quite a headache.

So the Essence was in even more of a grumbly mood.

So many loud children. Would be quieter if we just killed them.

'They'd die screaming, you idiot.'

That's different

'You're being silly.'

The pretender smells like a soap factory

'He showered.'

SOAP. FACTORY.

'There are worse things.'

Don't like him. Should break that pretty face. Smash it to bits, watch the colors.

'Why do you hate him so?'

Scent is all wrong.

'No, it isn't. Just because he smells of soap-'

More than that. Smells of death.

'He's not a vampire.'

Death. Not decay. Death.

'Yes, helpful as always, thank you. Please be quiet. I have enough voices to contend with at the moment.'

"Ford!" Buffy grinned as she swept up to us, "You made it!"

"Wasn't hard to find."

"Buffy, Ford was just telling us about the ninth grade beauty contest and the, uh, swimsuit competition?" Willow winked at Buffy mischievously. Since when had Willow been prone to winking? And also, had Ford been talking this whole time?

Funny, I seemed to have tuned him out. I was trying to tune out everything, to be honest. I was just here for Willow's sake. I had been going to stay home, but she insisted I come with her. She does try and make me sociable, at least.

"Oh my God, Ford, stop that!" Buffy snapped. The sparkle in her eyes didn't seem a particularly angry sparkle, however. It's hard for sparkles to look angry, honestly.

Sorry, I seem to be digressing easily.

"The more people you tell, the more people I have to kill." She informed him.

He pointed his cue at her.

"You can't touch me, Summers, I know all your darkest secrets."

"Care to make a small wager on that?" Xander quipped. I nudged him with my elbow, hard.

"Will you stop that?!" he hissed, wincing and rubbing his side. "I kind of need my kidneys, if you don't mind?"

"I'm gonna go get a drink." Buffy announced. "Ford, try not to talk."

I remembered something and hurriedly joined her. I put my hand on her arm to slow her for a moment.

"Angel's here." I told her, motioning with my head at the bar, where the vampire stood, drink in hand.

"How'd you know?"

"Kind of easy to pick out something cold and dead when everything else is hot and alive." I shrugged. She frowned at that. She hated to be reminded that technically Angel was indeed deceased. Just…very animated.

Like me.

Although 'animated' is a matter of debate. Especially if you asked Xander or Ms. Calendar.

"Hey." Buffy greeted him quietly when we walked up to the bar.

Angel dipped his head in greeting.

"So," Buffy said, and I very quietly slipped behind her. If she was going to confront Angel, I'd rather not get caught in the crossfire, "what'd you do last night?"

Angel frowned, shrugged, "Nothing?" he answered.

Fool doesn't even know how to lie

"Nothing at all?" Buffy pressed, "You ceased to exist?"

"No, I mean I stayed in, read."

I saw Buffy's shoulders slump in disappointment. She'd given him an out. She'd been giving him a chance to be honest with her. And he'd refused it. Perhaps not consciously, but he'd refused it all the same. That would come back to bite him.

Abruptly, Buffy turned and walked back towards our group. Angel blinked in confusion and looked at me.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"If you don't know, I can't tell you." I answered him. "Just remember, you told her you stayed in." He frowned at me, but I held his gaze. If he could have, he might have blushed, but it wasn't easy to read his expression. Guilt? Maybe, but something else, too. Determination?

I shrugged at him and turned to follow after Buffy. And Angel followed me.

"Didn't want that soda after all?" Ford was asking Buffy.

"Not thirsty." Buffy murmured.

"Hey, Angel!" Willow greeted. Xander just glared. This was not a good night for Xander, it appeared.

"Hi!" Ford greeted. As with me, he seemed fixated on Angel. Then again, why wouldn't he be? This was his childhood friend's boyfriend, of course he'd be fixated on him. Wouldn't he? Or was it something else?

Something about Ford just didn't sit right with me, but I'd not mentioned it to Buffy. It didn't seem like the right timing.

Buffy introduced the two of them, and Ford shook hands.

"Woah!" he said, smiling oddly at Angel, "Cold hands."

"You're not wrong." Xander said, a little too loudly.

I almost groaned.

If I wanted to watch something crash and burn I would have watched Star Wars again.

See what I did there? The…Death Star…

Apologies, it won't happen again.

"So you're here visiting Buffy?" Angel asked. Now he was looking at Ford very narrowly.

"Actually I'm here to stay," Ford explained, "just moved down."

Angel squinted at him. Did he sense something off about Ford, too?

"Hey Angel, do you wanna play?" Willow offered, motioning to the pool table.

"You know, it's getting really crowded in here tonight," Buffy interrupted, "I'm getting a little hot." She turned to Ford. "You wanna take a walk?"

She plays

'So it would seem. A play of jealousy?'

No. Wants to hurt him. Embarrass him. Pay him back.

"Sure," Ford answered, "that…sounds nice?" he seemed a bit bewildered by the sudden development, but nothing if not eager and willing to do whatever Buffy said, it would seem. Again, not uncommon with most young men when it came to Buffy.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." She addressed Xander and Willow.

She and Ford made their way out of the club while Angel stared after them.

"Okay," Xander said, "once more with tension."

"He just moved here?" Angel asked.

"Yeah," Xander answered, "and boy does he move fast." If a voice could drip with loathing, Xander's was.

"Angel, we could still play?" Willow suggested, glancing down at the table, which was all the time Angel needed. I saw him practically turn into a blur, felt the breeze as he moved past me and towards the door.

Willow looked up in dismay and poked Xander.

"See? You made him do that thing where he's gone!" she moaned.

After that, we didn't hang around too much longer. It was indeed intolerably hot in the Bronze, and Xander only wanted to complain about Ford and Angel, and Buffy, and there was only so much even sweet Willow would put up with.

When I noticed her rubbing her forehead in pain more than one time a minute, I decided it was time to see the children home.

I walked them home, of course. I preferred to make sure either Buffy or I were available to walk them home if it was later than ten at night. So Willow had to walk a little further than usual, since we had to walk Xander home first (even though he insisted we didn't have to).

The last mile home, I gave Willow a piggy-back ride. She was light, and I was fast, and she seemed to enjoy it.

The one nice thing of the evening, it seemed.

Only, after I got her home, Willow didn't want me to leave, but her parents were already asleep and didn't normally allow guests unless she asked permission first, she explained.

"I'm a creature of the night," I told her, puffing my chest out as impressively as I could, "do you think I give a toss what two puny mortals think?" I winked at her (oh God, now I was doing it, too) and she grinned, stifling a giggle.

"Well," she said, "give me a minute to get changed, and then I'll unlock the balcony door for you."

I waited obediently by the door in question, which was right outside Willow's room, and in a few moments the door opened and Willow, now clothed in baggy sleepwear, motioned me up. Obediently, I leapt up, swung myself over the banister.

Willow grinned at me again and I followed her into her room.

We sometimes had quiet evenings in like this. We didn't necessarily talk a great deal, since that might have woken her parents, but we sometimes read to each other if we had favorite books handy, or if we'd read something and a particular quote had stood out to us as especially genius or inspiring.

Or sometimes, like tonight, Willow wanted me to listen to some music with her. Tonight it was classical, which surprised me. Not because Willow wasn't the sort to enjoy classical music, she definitely was, but because she knew I'd heard practically everything. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but that she'd remembered this and purposefully brought my favorite: Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, was very touching.

She had a Walkman she listened to the cassette on, and she turned up the volume loud enough so I could hear it without her damaging her own hearing.

It was very relaxing, and, as I normally did when we listened to soothing music, I started brushing her hair.

However, just as we were about to get to my favorite part: the adagio movement, Willow's phone rang and she hastily snatched it up before her parents woke up.

I paused the music for her, not a little aggrieved we'd been interrupted. It was a stunning, heartbreaking piece of music, that adagio movement.

Buffy was on the other end, I could hear her.

"Ford knows." Were the first words out of her mouth, before Willow could even greet her.

It all came out in a gush at first: Ford knew she was the Slayer. He'd known since she left her last school. He knew it all. Somehow. But I didn't think he knew about me, or Angel. But what if he did? What if he knew even more than what he'd confessed to?

Willow seemed pleased with development, and Buffy seemed so, as well. Which was understandable. She was relieved she wouldn't have to lie to her childhood friend. She could be open with him, more or less. But I wasn't sure we should bring him into our inner circle just yet.

"Well that's cool, right?" Willow asked once she'd hung up, "Now we don't have to lie to Ford. We could tell him about you! Won't that be cool?"

I frowned.

"Maybe…we shouldn't, just yet." I told her. "Not until we know what his…reaction would be." I was going to say not until we knew for sure what his motivation was, but I didn't want her to get the wrong idea. Not before it was time.

She propped her chin on her hand and frowned slightly at me, playing with the edges of her bedsheet.

"Okay," she said, "but when do you think-" I raised my hand, the Essence pricking a warning in the back of my mind.

I spun around and stared at the window, where I'd caught a whiff of something.

For a moment I was ready to rush the door, but then I recognized it.

"Angel's here." I said. Well this was an unusual development.

"What?!"

I couldn't tell if Willow's exclamation was one of excitement, or worry. Or both.

I went and opened the door.

Angel blinked at me in surprise.

"What're you doing here?" he asked.

"Well I might ask the same of you." I pointed out.

"I needed to talk to Willow?"

"What is it?" Willow asked, stealing up behind me, pulling at her gown so it came down over her knees a little more.

"Well..." he glanced at me, "can I come in?"

I looked at Willow. She nodded and motioned with her hand.

"No, sweetling, you have to give him permission. Verbally." I told her.

"Oh!" she blushed, "Well, okay, I invite you…to come in."

Angel slipped through the door while Willow discreetly cleared off some of her more private things from the bed and sat down.

Angel looked curiously between Willow and me.

"If this is a bad time…" he started.

"Oh it's fine," Willow assured him, "just…I'm not supposed to have boys in my room." She blushed.

"I promise I'll behave myself." Angel chuckled.

"That you will." I murmured, just loud enough for him to hear me, but not Willow.

"I need your help." Angel said to Willow. "I need you to track someone down. On the internet."

"Oh!" Willow grinned, "Great! I am so the internet girl!" she scurried across the room to her desk and sat down at her computer, quickly logging into her browser.

"I just want to get everything I can," Angel explained, "records, affiliates, I'm not ever sure what I'm looking for, yet."

"You know, Angel," I said, following him and Willow to her desk, "one day you're going to have to catch up with the times. Technology is ever marching onward. It's not so scary to get your own computer, you know."

He rolled his eyes at me. Typical.

"Okay," Willow interrupted, "what's the name?"

"Billy Fordham."

Both Willow and I looked at him.

"Uh, Angel?" Willow said, "If I say something you really don't want to hear, do you promise not to bite me?"

Angel smirked.

"You're going to tell me that I'm jealous." He said.

"Well, you do sometimes get that way."

"I never used to," he said, sitting down on the bed, "things used to be pretty simple. A hundred years, just hanging out, feeling guilty. It really honed my brooding skills."

"Well thank heavens for that." I said.

"Then she comes along," he continued, ignoring me, "yeah. I get jealous."

"So investigating her childhood friend is acceptable because you're jealous?" I inquired. He looked at me and frowned, deeply.

"I know people," he said, "you know people, we've been around a while. Tell me you don't think something's up with him. Tell me you haven't felt something's off, something wrong. Can you do that? Can you say that?"

"No." I said. "I can't. I've felt something was off as well, I just don't know what."

"You did?" Willow asked.

I shrugged.

"Didn't seem important to bring up, but since we're discussing it, yes. I still feel something's off about him. I just don't know what."

"Okay," Willow said, typing away, "but if there isn't anything weird-" something beeped on her computer and she frowned, "hey, that's weird."

"I just checked the school records," she explained, "and he's not in them. I mean usually they transfer your grades and stuff, but, he's not even registered."

"He said he was in school with you guys, right?" Angel asked.

"Let me see if I can-"

"Willow?" Willow's mother called, making Willow jump up and start shoving Angel towards the balcony door, "Are you still up?" she called again.

"I'm just going to bed now, Mom!" Willow called back.

"Come by tomorrow at sunset," Willow told Angel, "I'll keep looking."

"Don't tell Buffy what we're doing," Angel warned her.

"You want me to lie to her?" Willow panicked, "It's Buffy!"

"Just don't bring it up until we know what's going on." Angel said. There was some wisdom in that, but I didn't much relish the thought of lying to the Slayer, either. Especially not when someone close to her was already doing the same thing. But if we told her and we were wrong, she'd be just as upset, so what was there to be done?

"Okay, it's probably nothing." Willow said.

"That'd be nice." Angel smiled.

I followed him out the door, waving goodbye to Willow as I did.

Knowing our lives, there was small chance of it being nothing. But at least now we were on the right track.