Here You Come Again
By Buffyfire

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, I've simply borrowed them for the sake of these stories.

Part 1

Lunch Specials
Hamburger
Cheeseburger
Burrito
Salad w/ ranch dressing

Buffy looked at her options. Nothing really made her day, but she was hungry. She went with the salad. After everything in it, that was fresh enough to eat, was gone, she threw away the still half-full container and headed for the library.

As she walked there, she couldn't help but notice how empty the halls were. There were usually students who had stayed after class for homework help or teachers on their way to lunch, but today, there was no one. She soon saw the double doors that led to the library. When she was about halfway down the hall, she stopped. She got a strange feeling, which felt like a nagging in the back of her head, telling her to turn around. She tried to ignore it and kept walking.

"Buffy!"

She heard it when she reached the door. It was a whisper that she recognized. She whirled around, but all she saw of the person was their shadow disappearing out the door of the building. She ran out after him. When she got outside, she met her follower. Her suspicions had been correct. Angel stood before her. She stared at him for a second with an open jaw. It was 12:30 in the afternoon and the sun shone brightly.

"What the hell...I...how?" she stammered, "This makes no sense."

"Tell me about it," he answered, "I've spent all morning trying to figure it out."

"Well?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, because I'm drawing a blank."

Buffy stepped towards him, cautiously. She slowly lifted a hand to his cheek, then ran it through his hair. She had forgotten how much she enjoyed his soft skin, always so smooth and cool. After a second, he drew her into his arms for a long kiss. As the kiss went on, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. When their lips parted, they continued to hold on to one another. She rested her head, comfortably on his shoulder.

Before she could pull away to say something, she felt a sharp pain in her lower neck as though she'd been stabbed or bitten! Her body tensed as he tightened his hold on her. She no longer had the strength to pull away. He had her. The last thing she could think was how stupid she was for not killing him when she'd had the chance. Then, there was only blackness.


Buffy awoke with a start. This was the third time she'd had this dream and she was sick of it. There had, on occasion, been times when she would lay in bed and wish that she hadn't woken up. She rather enjoyed the peace of unconsciousness and didn't appreciate coming back to the real world. She turned over and attempted to go back to sleep. She had only been there a moment, when she heard a loud thump from across the hall, in her mom's room. She sat up and listened, but there was only silence. Probably just imagined it, she thought. The second thump proved her wrong. She got out of bed and grabbed her robe. She tied it around herself, as she walked down the hall. When she reached her mom's room, she lifted her hand to knock, then changed her mind. She began to walk back to her room.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

A scream came from Joyce's room. Buffy burst in and was disgusted with what she saw.

Her mother was not alone in the room. A familiar form stood in the shadows and Joyce's lifeless body lay at his feet. Buffy felt her blood boil.

"That's it!" she cried, "This is the last time I let you torment me!"

Angel stepped out of the shadows, "Well, if I'm not tormenting you, what will I do for fun?"

"Die for all I care!"

He laughed, "You know, you're really cute when you're angry."

She responded by kicking him in the face and he, in turn, backhanded her across the cheek. She fell back onto the bed. He jumped on her and pinned her arms down with his hands.

"I hate you!" she screamed.

"That won't help you win."

She got a foot under him and shoved him off of her, then stood and prepared to fight. He jumped up from the corner he'd been thrown into and glared at her. They circled each other until they had changed positions and she stood in the corner. With everything she had, she ran at him, in an attempt to tackle him. He grabbed her arm and swung her around into the side of one of the wooden bedposts, breaking it in half and landing her hard on the ground.

Buffy was dazed. Her head hit the floor and nearly knocked her out. A sudden pain in her lower back woke her up. She looked up and saw Angel standing above her, holding the part of the bedpost which had broken off. It took her a second to realize that he had hit her with it. Before she could stop him, he hit her again, in the head this time. Buffy felt blood flow from the side of her head. She was in too much pain to move.

"Oh, come on!" he laughed, "Get up and fight, you wus!"

He dropped the bedpost and picked her up by her waist, letting her hang over his arms like a towel on a rack. He grabbed her shoulder to get her straight and put his arm around her neck to keep her there. He began talking to her and gloating about his "easy" victory over her, but she wasn't listening. She was planning. Unbeknownst to Angel, Buffy's strength was slowly returning to her. She saw, in front of her, the part of the bedpost that was still attached to the bed and saw her opportunity. Finally tuning herself back to him, she heard him say, "-know why this has taken so long. It was easier than I expected. Oh well, I can't say it hasn't been fun, how about you? Have you enjoyed this fighting experience as much as I have."

"No," she said softly.

"Why not?"

Without a word, she grabbed his arm and threw her over her shoulder, landing him on top of the post. With a yell of pain, he disappeared, leaving behind only a small pile of dust.

"Because, it was over too quickly," she uselessly answered his question. A second later, she sank to the floor and began to cry.


Again, Buffy woke up. She sat up in bed and immediately noticed the tears on her face and the sweat on her forehead. She wiped it off and got up. There was no way she'd be going back to sleep, now. This was the third dream of it's kind this week and, so far, the worst yet.

She walked down the stairs and adjusted the thermostat. Her mom had left it on and the house was rather warm. She got to the kitchen and saw a clock.

"Uhhhg!" she said. It was 3:19, a good five hours until school started. She turned on the light and was surprised at what sat on her kitchen table. It was a huge crate addressed to her mom, from The Shadow Gallery, in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the fact that her conscience was telling her to keep out, her boredom urged her on.

There was a crowbar next to the crate she didn't bother with it. She grabbed the top and ripped it off. She dug through the packing peanuts and pulled out a large painting. It was a picture of a woman holding a baby. The woman wore, what looked like a housedress. It was dirty and it looked like she'd been gardening in it. It was also too big the top hung off one of her tan shoulders. At the bottom of the painting there were initials, but they were hard to make out. All in all Buffy liked the painting. The only thing she didn't like was that the woman didn't look happy. The baby, on the other hand, was smiling. She had a fistful of the woman's red hair. Buffy put the painting down, then returned to the crate.

There was one more item inside: a statue of the same woman in the painting. She was a little more cleaned up in this one. She wore a long dress and had her hands folded in front of her, looking very proper.

Buffy lifted the small statue and looked at the bottom. The same distorted initials were carved. She wished she could read them. Whoever had made this had done a superb job. The statue, like the painting, was very detailed and beautifully made. With a sigh and a shrug, she put the items back in the crate and left the kitchen.

She planted herself on the couch and decided to find out what was on late-night TV. She didn't pay much attention to the aggregation of infomercials and talk shows before her. Her mind was on other things, primarily, her dreams. She hated her dreams. They all screamed the thing that she'd been trying to avoid: it was time to let go of Angel. She'd let it go on for three months and things were getting serious. His bothersome behavior had taken a violent turn the week before. If she didn't stop him soon... Well, she didn't like to think about it. She soon let it slip from her mind and turned her attention to the TV.Hmmm, Springer.

Outside, about thirty feet from where Buffy was sitting, a figure stood in the darkness. He had watched her in the kitchen and one look at the painting had set his mind moving. Within seconds, he'd developed an idea and spent the rest of the night watching her.


"Ms. Summers, I know this isn't the most interesting of all classes, but please, try to stay awake"!

Buffy sat up quickly. She hadn't really been asleep, but four periods of slow classes and lack of sleep the night before had caused her head to droop.

"Sorry," she said

This was the first time she'd actually looked at Ms Howard. For the past week, Teri had been home recuperating from what Angel had done to her. There were still scars on her face from the glass shards.

"Alright class, turn to page 219 and do numbers 2-9. I want complete sentences this time. Buffy, can I see you outside for a minute?"

Buffy nervously glanced at Willow who sat in the seat next to her, then followed her teacher into the hall.

"I'm sorry. I'll try to pay attention, I just haven't had much sleep lately," Buffy said when they were outside the room.

"That's not why I called you out here."

"So, what do you want?"

"What do you know about these vampires?"

"Huh?" Buffy had expected anything but that.

"Ms. Calendar told you what happened, right? Why I showed up at your house half dead?"

"Yeah, she-"

"Why did she take me to you? What do you know about them?"

"Uh...well...um," Buffy was stuck.

"Do you study them or something?"

"Yeah. I- I study them."

"For how long?"

"Only a couple years."

"Ok well, how can I protect myself?"

"Wear a cross, maybe some garlic and stay inside at night. They can't come into your house unless you invite them in, so you'll be safe there. Um...You haven't mentioned this to anyone, have you?"

"Are you kidding? They'd think I was crazy."

"Oh, ok. Good."

With that, she walked into the classroom and began her assignment. When the bell rang, Buffy and Willow hurried out the room.

"So, what did you two talk about?" Willow asked.

"Well, you know all those scars on her face?" said Buffy.

"Yeah."

"You wanna guess how she got them?"

"I'm really not a good guesser, tell me."

"I'll give you a hint: He's an old friend who's made it his life goal to be a real pain in the ass to me."

"Do I even need to guess?"

"Only if you don't know the answer."

"So, why is Angel going after Ms. Howard?"

"He's not, he's out to get Ms. Calendar."

"Why?"

"Good question."

"What'd he do to her?"

"See for yourself," Buffy said as they passed by the, still broken, trophy case.

"Ow."

When they passed by the computer lab, Buffy stopped.

"Will, why don't you go find Xander? I'll meet you in the library, later."

"Yeah, I need to go hear about his date with Cordelia last night."

"Fill me in on every detail."

Buffy watched her go down the hall, then entered the computer lab. She found Ms. Calendar sitting at one of the computer stations. She still hadn't gotten a replacement for the one Angel had destroyed. When she saw Buffy, she quickly put on her screen saver.

"Buffy, hi."

"Hi. Ms. Howard came back today. She and I had a really interesting conversation. She wanted to know what I knew about vampires."

Jenny knew where this was heading. All she could think of to say was, "Really."

"Mmm Hmm. What else did you tell her?"

"Nothing. These are your secrets to tell, Buffy, not mine."

"But you told her what he was. Doesn't that fit under the category of my secrets, too?"

"All I told her was that he's a vampire. C'mon, what did you want me to tell her? He's a gang member on PCP? No one believes that. Everyone's wondering what Snyder's trying to pull."

"What exactly did you say to her."

"I just said to stay away from him and if she happens to see him again, to tell you."

"Well, she better pray that she doesn't see him, because, she may not be so lucky to have someone around to save her, next time. She's knows what he is and if they meet again, he'll kill her." Buffy concluded and left the computer lab at a brisk pace.

A minute later, she arrived at the library. Xander stood before Willow and Cordelia, making suggestions on what to do that night.

"Buffy," he said, "are you busy tonight?"

"Hmm, let me check my packed schedule." She said sarcastically.

"Do you have patrol?"

"Probably. Where's Giles? I'll ask him."

"Where else? In the maze of books and old stuff, he calls his office."

Buffy entered the office and found Giles sitting at his desk with two books. The one he was reading looked like a diary, the other had copies of European paintings in it.

"Giles, do I- Oh my gosh! My mom has that painting sitting in our kitchen," she said pointing to the picture he was studying.

Giles looked up, "Really? Are you sure it's this one?"

"Yeah, it came in the mail yesterday."

"Did anything come with it?"

"Yes, a statue and what's with the interrogation?"

Ignoring her question, he asked, "Did you find this mark on the statue?" he pointed to the initials, which were in the bottom corner of the painting.

"It was on the bottom."

Giles face was full of interest. His eyes lit up when she'd affirmed his suspicions.

"Why the sudden interest in the art world?"

"This painting has a rather interesting history. The woman you see was a conjuress in the 18th century."

"Like a witch?"

"Somewhat, yes. A Celt to be exact. She was attempting a new spell, involving a statue, some form of voodoo I suppose, when she accidentally trapped herself inside."

"And you think I got it in the mail?"

"It's quite possible. Where did it come from?"

"Um... Ireland. Did she make the statue herself?"

"No, her husband did. He, likewise, painted the portrait."

Buffy looked at the picture, "She's beautiful. She looks young."

"She was nineteen. I'll bet this painting was locked away for years?"

"Why would it be. If I could do something like that, I'd flaunt it and go to Rio with my fortune."

"Not then, not there. It was improper to show that much skin, especially for a lady of her stature."

"That's nothing. She's covered."

"Back then, only whores showed off their shoulders. She's also dirty. She'd been out in her garden all day."

"Why didn't her husband let her clean up first?"

"This way, she was natural. He liked that."

"Hmm," A thought suddenly occurred to Buffy, "How do you know all this?"

"I have her husband's diary. A friend in Ireland sent it to me a few weeks ago. In his letter, he told me that this man left his home soon after Kayla disappeared, that was her name by the way."

"Pretty name. So, why'd he leave?"

"No one knows. When they broke into the abandoned house, they found various pieces of art, including the statue and portrait. They also found their five-month old infant, who surprisingly enough was still alive."

"He left his baby! Jeez, the world hasn't come far, has it?"

"Apparently, not, but I'm sorry, you wanted something?"

"Yeah, can I get tonight off?"

Giles gave her his don't-make-me-laugh look.

"Please. I've been killing four vampires a night for the past week. Besides, when was the last time I took a night off?"

"Last week."

Buffy widened her eyes and brought her lower lip into a pout.

"Alright," said Giles, "but next time I'm saying no, I promise you that."

"Thank you," she said and left the office.

"So," she said to her friends, "where are we going tonight?"


Just outside the door, stood Jenny. She had been listening to them make plans, and contemplating whether to go in or not. With a sigh, she walked away from the door and returned to her classroom.

She groaned when she sat down at her computer. She had been going through a book that she had scanned long ago. The original book was huge, at least six inches thick. What bugged her even more was that she was only halfway through it. The book contained a record of every spell her people had ever cast on anyone. Unfortunately, it was in no particular order. She had been trying to find a loophole in the curse that had been placed on Angel. She had written to every relative and elder that she knew, demanding, or sometimes begging, them to give her the info that she needed. To her disappointment, they had all told her that she was on her own.

The closest she had ever come, besides the incident of the week before, was a spell that would not only make his soul permanent, but also give him many human qualities that he'd never had before. Unfortunately, for this to work, he needed a soul to cast the spell on. The situation was really frustrating.

By doing this, she was hoping to, in some way, redeem herself for the trouble she felt she had caused. It had been three months since they had learned her secret and she was still being shunned she hated it. She wanted her friends back, but the only way to get that was to bring Angel back. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to do that.

That morning, to add to her troubles, she had heard Buffy talking about her dreams. This told Jenny that she had to work fast. Everyday, Buffy brought herself a little closer to killing him. If she did, Jenny would have no way of getting back her trust.

She used the mouse to click from page to page. After a few minutes, she stopped she'd found it. It gave every detail of the night he'd been cursed. She was astonished when she looked at the date. It would be exactly one hundred years, the next morning. When she read the description, her jaw dropped. She learned some interesting things that she'd never known before.

She printed up the page, then hurried with it to the library. Just as she got there, the bell rang. The kids were on their way out.

"Buffy, wait!" I need to talk to you," said Jenny.

"Save it," said Buffy rudely, as she pushed past her.

After a second of glaring, Jenny turned and walked to her classroom, saying, "After tonight, you are gonna so wish you'd talked to me."

Part 2

That night, things at the Bronze were bustling. The band was playing better than usual and half the place was up dancing. Willow sat at one of the tables, staring at the stage. She was watching Oz play and admiring his talent. When Buffy arrived, she grabbed Willow's hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. They joined a dance circle and boogied through a couple of songs. When they returned to the table, Xander and Cordelia were there waiting for them.

"Hi," said Willow cheerfully.

"Hey Will," said Xander.

"So, what are you two up to tonight?" asked Buffy.

"Dancing, sitting, talking and more dancing," Xander answered her.

"Same as usual," added Cordelia.

They were quiet for awhile, as they absorbed the sound coming from the stage. Buffy finally broke the silence.

"Hey Will, what's with the band's name? I mean, what kind of name is 'Dingoes Ate my Baby', anyway?"

"I don't know," said Willow, "I just hope it doesn't anything to do with a life experience."

The comment brought a smile to everyone's lips. Although Willow was pleased with herself for saying it, she couldn't help but let her smile fade as she looked in the back of the room. Her eyes grew wide and she mouthed the words, "Oh no." Xander was the first to notice this.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She didn't answer him, but changed her expression to a look of contempt. He turned around and looked where she was looking. His face soon took on the same displeasure as Willow's.

"Oh, God," he said.

When Cordelia turned around, Buffy realized that she was missing something. She turned around Oh shit, she thought. She almost said it out loud, but decided to keep her profanity to herself.

Standing in the back of the room with folded arms and a cocky little smile on his face, was Angel. As soon as Buffy turned around, he started walking towards them.

"What's he doing?" asked Xander.

"Taunting us," said Buffy, "he knows I won't fight him here.

"Would he attack us?" asked Willow

"No, he's smarter than that. All he's here to do is make us mad."

The more she tried to calm her friends, the more she shook inside. She could feel Angel coming closer, which made the shaking worse. When he arrived at the table, he could see her apprehension and he liked it.

"Well, aren't we a happy bunch? How are my four favorite people in the world? Xander looking good. Cordy, love the dress. Oh, and Buffy, that shade of blue looks fabulous on you," he said, feeling the sleeve of her baby blue dress. When they heard their names, Xander and Cordelia reflexively looked up Buffy didn't. She refused to look at him for fear of losing her self-control. Her first move was to wrench her sleeve away from him.

"What do you want?" she said. She had tried to keep her voice steady, but couldn't stop the tremor that escaped.

"What was that?" he laughed, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were afraid of me. Was that a hint of fear?"

"No, that was me trying so hard, not to kick your ass from here to LA."

He laughed again, "You'd like that wouldn't you? If I know you, you have two, maybe three stakes in your bag there and I know that you'd just love to use one right about now, especially after what happened last week. How is Ms. Howard, anyway?"

"You still haven't answered my question. What do you want?"

"Something you have and believe me, I'll come for it, soon."

"Is that all you wanted, because, you know I was having a good time up till now."

"No, I do want to you to know something else." He leaned close to her ear and began whispering. No one could hear what he said, but judging by Buffy's reaction, it couldn't have been good. Before he he'd even finished, she punched his stomach as hard as she could. She grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back, and then slammed his head down onto the table. She leaned down to his ear and said, "Listen to me, you little bastard! I've let you torture me for too long. Next time I see you, I stop caring. If you go near any one I care about, I swear you won't last the night!"

She let him up from the table. Before leaving, he lifted his arm to show them the marks her nails had left. They were so deep that they almost bled. The cocky smile returned. Finally, he left.

Buffy sat down and took in some deep breaths. All her inner shaking had come out. She laid her head on the table and wrapped her arms around her head. Xander hugged her shoulders and tried to comfort her.

"Don't let him do this to you," he said, "You know this is exactly what he wants."

Buffy nodded and lifted her head.

"You're right," she said, "I just need to get out of here."

"I'll drive you," said Cordelia, "In fact, I'm taking you all home."

The next few moments were spent in silence. They left the Bronze and went to Cordelia's red sports car. Buffy and Xander got in, but Willow and Cordelia hesitated outside for a moment. They stayed outside the car, talking. When they got in, Willow asked, "Buffy, would it be ok, if we stayed at your house, tonight?"

"You guys, my house isn't exactly the safest place right now."

"Neither is mine," said Willow, "he's been in my house too, remember?"

"And I don't wanna have to drive home alone," Cordelia added.

Buffy sighed, "I guess it's alright."

"Will your mom mind?" asked Willow.

"She's gone for the weekend. My aunt, in LA, is getting a divorce, so my mom went to visit her."

"Um...Buffy?" Xander began.

"No, you can't come over. Stay inside and you'll be safe."

"Well, you can't blame a guy for trying."

They pulled up to Xander's house. He got out and walked around to the driver's side.

"You ladies be careful," he said through the open window, "and call me as soon as anything good happens."

Before leaving, he stopped to give Cordelia a long kiss, then waved good-bye. "Bye," he called, then went inside.

The ride to Buffy's house was a somewhat awkward situation it was very quiet. Cordelia tried to break the silence, by turning on the radio. That was a mistake. Every station she turned to was playing an annoyingly sad love song. After coming across a recent Toni Braxton number, she shut off the radio. A minute later, they were at Buffy's house.

When they entered the house, Willow and Cordelia went upstairs to Buffy's room, yawning as they went. Buffy felt herself yawn. She went into the kitchen and grabbed three sodas from the fridge. The clock on the microwave read 11:18. It seemed later to her. She walked around the house to make sure that the doors were locked and secured, then went up to her room. Willow sat on the bed, explaining to Cordelia what had happened to Ms. Howard. Buffy handed them each a soda, then down on the floor with Cordelia, and listened.

When Willow finished, Cordelia turned to Buffy and said, "Can I ask you a probably rude question."

"I guess so," Buffy said, taking a sip of her soda.

"I hope you don't get mad at this, because I know it's kind of a delicate subject. I mean you-"

"Cordelia, what is it?"

"Why is he still alive?"

"Cordelia!" said Willow, "What kind of question is that?"

"No," said Buffy, "it's Ok. The fact is, I've been asking myself the same question for a long time and to be honest, I don't know. I have decided something, though. I told him tonight that if he comes around, again, I'd kill him. Meaning that, within three days, max, he'll be gone for good."

"Are you sure you'll be able to kill him?"

"No, but I have to try, at least. He's already gone after Ms. Calendar and she escaped mostly through luck. He could go after her again, or one of you, for that matter. I can't let him."

It was at that moment that the phone rang. Buffy got up from her place on the floor and answered it.

"Hello...oh, hey...No..Yeah, we're fine, don't worry...Uh huh..Xander told you?...Ok..Ok, bye." She hung up the phone, the returned to her seat.

"Giles?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, Xander told him what happened and he was just making sure we were Ok."

"Well, that was nice of him," said Willow, yawning.

"Tired, Will?"

She nodded.

"Me too. Let's go to bed."

Within minutes, the three of them were changed and ready for bed. Buffyfluffed the pillows on her bed as her friends got comfortable in their sleeping bags. The lights were shut off, but no one slept. The thoughts that burned in their minds prevented it.

"Buffy?" Willow finally said, "What did he say to you?"

Buffy gulped she'd hoped that this wouldn't come up.

"Nothing I want to repeat," she said.

"Can you sum it up?"

Buffy hesitated, "Um...Cordelia, you know why he left our side, right? Did someone explain it to you?"

"Xander did. The curse broke because you slept with him."

"Sleeping with him was a mistake. What he said was a reminder of that mistake and a rather crude invitation to make it again." Buffy paused, then gave a slight laugh, "Which should give you some idea of how far he's gotten with Drusilla."

The girls laughed. After a moment of silence, they said their goodnights, and were soon fast asleep.


Thump!

Buffy sat up. If her dreams had taught her one thing is was never wait for the second thump. She got out of bed and went straight to her mom's room. Finding no one there, she left and found her friends standing in the hall.

"Stay in my room," she said, as she pushed them towards her bedroom.

"What's going on?" asked Willow.

"I think someone's in the house," she told them.

"Is it Angel?"

"Most likely. Just stay in there. If you see him, yell for me." With that, she left the room to explore the house of its intruder.

"Someone's cranky," said Cordelia when they were back in the bedroom.

"You're hopeless, Cordelia. Have I ever told you that?" Willow asked.

"What? Just because that jerk picked tonight to piss her off, I'm suppose to deal with her moodiness? I don't think so."

A voice from behind her said, "I couldn't agree more."

They both turned to see that Angel was in the room with them. Hecontinued, "She has been rather hostile, lately. Oh, and about that yelling for her thing, that she said, I wouldn't if I were you. Instead, we're just gonna wait for her to get back."

"You won't be waiting long."

Angel whirled around to find Buffy standing in the doorway.

He looked at her for a second, then quoted himself by saying, "Even pretty going to bed."

She glared at him for a second, then turned her attention to her friends and said, "I want you two out of here."

"They won't be going far. I may need them. I'm always hungry after a good fight."

As he said this, Cordelia was coming from behind him with a vile of Holy Water, which she had snatched off of Buffy's nightstand. When he finished talking, she threw the vile at him. Unfortunately, he knew what she was doing and jumped out of the way just in time to see the water splash on the floor. He turned and, in a quick motion, slapped her across the face. The force of the blow knocked her to the ground. A small moan escaped her lips as she slowly passed out.

Buffy became angry. With all her force, she shoved him, from behind, into the wall. He hit it hard with an "Oof!"

As soon as she had the chance, Willow grabbed Cordelia by the arms and dragged her into Joyce's room. After depositing Cordelia on the bed, she ran out just in time to see Angel go flying from Buffy's room. A second later, Buffy emerged from her room, carrying a stake. Angel got up and ran for the stairs. He was about halfway down, when she leapt at him from the top, grabbing him on the way down and accidentally turning on her back. He landed on top of her and, by the force of gravity, rolled off.

Buffy's head hurt. She hadn't felt this dazed since her dream. She felt like she was watching things happen from a mile away. It seemed to go slowly and silently. She saw Angel pick himself up off the ground and walk toward her. He grabbed her quickly and began to talk to her, but because she was so dazed, she couldn't make out what he was saying. When he bent his head to her neck, she closed her eyes for what was coming. Suddenly, the sound came back on with a BONG! It was the downstairs clock.

Buffy felt herself dropped. Angel stood above her, hunched over and breathing in gasps. Buffy stood. She didn't know what was going on, but she decided to take advantage of the situation, by kicking him in the face. Angel flew back. She did it again with the same effect. She continued to pummel him. When she was finally tired of fighting him, he was on the floor and unmoving. She took her stake and raised it high above her head.

"STOP!"

Buffy whirled around and was surprised to see Jenny standing in her doorway, holding some pieces of paper. Before Buffy could ask what was going on, Jenny started reading aloud from one of the pages. The words were of another language. Jenny closed her eyes and pointed at Angel. A light shot from her fingers and hit him in the chest. Soon his entire body glowed with a strange yellow aura. As soon as Jenny finished, and the light left his body.

Willow and Cordelia, who had woken up sometime before, ran down the stairs. Buffy just stood there, not quite sure of what had just happened.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"I think I just saved him," said Jenny.

"What do you mean?"

"Was he fighting you before I came in?"

"What else would he be doing here?"

"I mean right before I got here, was he fighting back or blocking or anything?"

"No, he looked like he was in pain. Why? What happened?"

Jenny didn't answer, but a smile spread across her face and she said, "It worked."

Buffy grabbed her shoulders and looked intently into her face and said, "What worked?"

With tremors of excitement, Jenny said, "Buffy, you're getting your boyfriend back."Buffy stood there, mouth gaping.

"You did this?" said Willow.

"No," she said, "This would have happened anyway. Look it's a long story and I'll tell you everything, but first we need to get him upstairs. The sun will be up before he wakes up."

"We'll put him in my room," said Buffy.

"No," said Jenny, "trust me, when I say, that there are too many things in there for him to hurt himself on. We'll put him in your mom's room." They each grabbed a limb and carried him up the stairs. Jenny shut the curtain and covered it with a heavy blanket to keep out the light of the coming day. Then they all left, shutting the door behind them.

"Willow," said Jenny, "call Rupert and Xander. I want them here so I won't have to tell this twice. Oh, and don't tell them what happened, just tell them to get here ASAP."

The four of them went downstairs to the kitchen where Willow got on the phone. Buffy made some coffee, while Cordelia got an ice pack for her eye.

"Cordelia," said Willow, "Xander needs a ride. Can you go?"

"Just as I sit down," she complained, "alright, tell him I'm on my way."

On her way out, Cordelia passed by the downstairs, hall mirror and screamed into her reflection. She then ran upstairs, swearing that she wasn't leaving until she'd done something with her hair. She left ten minutes later. Ten minutes after that, Giles arrived.

"Well," he said, "What's so important that you have to drag a man from his bed at 3:30 am?"

"Come with me, Rupert," said Jenny, as she grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see, but you have to be quiet."

She led him up to Joyce's room and opened the door. Giles peered in and saw Angel lying on the bed where he's been left. He gasped and stepped out. Jenny shut the door.

"What's he doing here?" Giles asked somewhat sharply.

"He's getting his soul back."

"How?"

"I've had Buffy and willow asking me the same thing for the past twenty minutes. I'll explain everything when Xander gets here."

As they walked down the stairs, Cordelia and Xander came through the door.

"Take Xander upstairs," said Jenny, "show him, everything, then meet us down here. Oh, and do it quietly. You don't wanna wake him up, now."

"Wake who up?" asked Xander, as he was being pulled up the stairs.

When they arrived at the top, Xander asked again, "Wake who up?"

They reached Joyce's door and Cordelia said, "See for yourself."

After taking a quick look inside, Xander grabbed her hand and pulled her to the other end of the hall.

"Just what in the hell is he doing here?" he asked.

"Xander relax, he's getting his soul back."

"What!"

"Yeah, Ms. Calendar cast a spell or something. She's gonna explain it to us."

"Oh, God!"

"What's wrong?"

"So, just like that, everything goes back to normal? No questions asked?"

"I guess so."

"You guess so? This is crazy!"

"Why are so crazed? You know, most of us are looking at the positive side of this."

"I'm shocked that you are. You were here. What happened? Oh, I'm sorry, or were you too unconscious from when he hit you? That's where you got that right?" he said pointing to the bruise on her right eye, "What, did he knock some sense out of you, when he did that?"

"That was really mean, Xander," she said, looking away from him.

"Well, I beginning to think it's true."

"Ok Xander, before you make a complete ass of yourself, let me tell you what I've been through tonight. After that harassing scene at the Bronze, I get here and Willow tells me what happened to Ms. Howard. It seems that Angel shoved her head through the trophy case at school. So, after hearing this, I'm slightly shaken and want to go to sleep, but I can't because he decided to wakes us up at 3 am. So, until you've been deprived of sleep, knocked out by something twice as strong as you and then forced to go pick up your loser boyfriend, I want you to calm down, shut up and stop taking your anger out on me!"

Xander didn't counter her attack. Instead, he turned and walked quickly down the stairs. Cordelia followed soon after. They sat at opposite ends of the table. Jenny came in a few minutes later, followed by Giles. She noticed the tension between Xander and Cordelia, but decided she'd ask later.

"Well," she began, "It's official, Angel's gonna come back to the good side. He should be awake in a few hours."

"You keep telling us that you didn't do it, so what happened?" asked Willow.

"Ever since Angel changed, I've been looking for a way to get him back, some kind of loophole, anything really, but mostly I came up empty. I did, however find something a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, due to complications, I wasn't able to do it. So, I started going through records. We have one for every spell my people have ever cast. I found his yesterday morning." She held up the pages, "It says that it was cast at 3 am, 100 years ago, today. When I read the description, I found some things that I don't think even Angel knew. It was supposed to be that after a hundred years, he would lose his soul, then a hundred years later, get it back."

"I fail to see the point or the curse in this," said Buffy.

"Well, they said they wanted him to suffer forever, and if he tried to live as human for too long, he would eventually learn to let it go. So, they decided that by giving him a hundred years, just enough time to settle into a new life, then ripping him away from it, he'd be stuck in an endless cycle of pain and humiliation. Luckily Buffy, you threw it off balance and it's good that you did. Since he didn't have a soul when the hundred mark came around, he got it back."

"For the next hundred years," Buffy said as it hit her.

"Actually, that's where I came in. The spell I cast, when I got here, fixed that. His soul is permanent, now."

"And you're sure about that?" said Xander, not quite believing what he'd heard.

"It would take a really powerful sorcerer to take it now. Also, along with that, the spell gave him some advantages."

"Like what?" asked Giles.

"His need for blood has gone down and sunlight doesn't have such an effect. Various other things that probably won't help, but you never know."

"And all this will be permanent as well?" he asked.

"Every bit of it," she assured them.

Part 3

The meeting broke up a few minutes later and everyone scattered to a different part of the house. Willow went to the living room and tried to catch up on some sleep. Cordelia went to Buffy's room and did the same. Xander flipped on the TV, while Giles and Jenny had a brief conversation in the kitchen. Buffy crept quietly up the stairs. She stood outside her mom's room for a few minutes, trying to decide whether to go in or not.

"Buffy."

She turned around and found Jenny behind her.

"Look, I really need to talk to you. Is there somewhere we can go?"

"Yeah," Buffy led Jenny through the hallway to the always-empty guestroom. When they were both inside, Jenny shut the door.

"What is it?" asked Buffy.

"I have, kind of a warning for you."

"Oh goody, a warning, that's what I need," Buffy said sarcastically.

"This is serious. There's something else you need to know. I didn't say this downstairs, because the way I see it, this is between you and Angel and whether or not people should know this is your decision."

"Ms. Calendar, you're babbling. Spit it out."

Jenny sighed, then avoiding Buffy's gaze, said, "If you're gonna sleep with him again, be careful."

"Excuse me?" Buffy was rather surprised at Jenny's bluntness.

"The spell was a package deal. It was all or nothing. What I didn't tell the others is that along with a slight aversion to sunlight, he also has the ability to..." Jenny was searching for the word. She finally spit out, " to...procreate."

Buffy's eyebrows went to the top of her forehead, when she realized what she'd just been told, "You mean..."

Jenny nodded, "If you're not careful, you can get pregnant and from what I've read, a pregnant slayer may as well be a dead one. So, please watch yourself."

"Yeah um... thanks for telling me. Oh, and for not telling everyone else...um...wow." Jenny saw the distortion in Buffy's face. She obviously hadn't expected to hear something like this. Jenny hoped she would be ready for what was next.

"There's something else," said Jenny

"What?"

"I think you should be ready for whatever may happen when he wakes up. I don't know what will be going through his head, but I don't think he's gonna be too thrilled to see you or anyone else for that matter. He's gonna feel really guilty, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I've been thinking about it to. I don't know what I'm gonna say to him."

"You should be more concerned about what he'll say to you. You also need to be ready for any action he may wanna take."

"Like what?"

"Well, he may wanna leave, you know, go somewhere, where he can't hurt us. Or.." Jenny stopped herself.

"Or what?"

Jenny sighed, "He may not wanna go on at all. He may want one of us to kill him, he may even be suicidal, I can't be sure."

"He can't," Buffy said softly, "Not now. I just got him back."

"Buffy, he's gonna think this is all his fault."

"But it's not."

"I know, but you know how he is. You need to convince him otherwise."

"What if I can't?"

"I don't know." Jenny saw the tears that ran down Buffy's cheeks and wished that she had more comforting words. She opened the door to leave.

"Wait," said Buffy.

Jenny turned around, "What?"

"You said that you found a spell, that would have gotten him back before. What happened?"

"You know how I told you that I didn't know why he attacked me, last week?"

"Yeah?"

"I lied. He found out about the spell and tried to kill me before I could cast it."

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I don't know. I guess, I wanted to surprise you. I wanted you to trust me, again. I thought that if I could get his soul back, then maybe you'd... I'm sorry. I didn't expect any of this, you know. I was just doing what I was told. If I'd know, believe me, there's no way I'd ever have let it happen." She took a moment to breathe, then continued softly, "I know it doesn't change anything. I mean, because of me, people are dead who don't have to be. But I'm sorry. I didn't want to lie to you. I didn't want to start all of this and I'm sorry that I continued to keep secrets from you."

Buffy thought about this rather heart-felt apology and said, "You said he'd feel guilty. Will he feel worse than you do?"

"It's hard to imagine, but he probably will."

"Then I really for sorry for him." Buffy gave her a brief hug, then left the room, shutting the door behind her.


The next few hours were slow for everyone. At around 7:00, Willow woke up and went to the kitchen. Jenny and Xander joined her there and the three of them made breakfast for everyone. When it was made, Xander walked quietly up the stairs. He knocked on Buffy's door and an annoyed moan came from inside. He opened the door and saw Cordelia lying in the bed.

"There's breakfast downstairs, you want some?"

Cordelia rubbed her eyes and said, "I'll be down in a little bit."

"Hurry down," he said, then shut the door. He crept down the hall to Joyce's room and quietly poked his head in. Inside, he saw Buffy. She was sitting in a chair next to the bed, watching Angel. She looked up when Xander came in.

"You want some breakfast?" he whispered.

"No thanks," she whispered back, "but could you bring me some aspirin? I'm not feeling too great."

He nodded and left the room. He stopped back at Buffy's room to find that Cordelia was still in the bed. He walked in and sat on the floor next to her. "I said I'd be down in a minute," she said.

"No, you said you'd be down in a bit. There's a difference, you know." Then seeing that she wasn't amused, he said, "I'm sorry Cordy. It's not you, it's this whole situation. I think we're being too calm about this."

"You were just given a guarantee that he would stay on the good side. Why do hate him so much?"

"It's a lot of things."

"This better not be another of your stupid jealousy trips, or I swear, Xander-"

"It's not, I just have a bad feeling about this."

"Well, get over it. Do us all a big favor and get over it. You've been carrying all these stupid excuses. You need to just figure out what this is really about, because we're way past being sick of it."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"You should be," she sat up, "You really know how to insult a person."

He got up and sat on the edge of the bed. It was weird he wasn't used to being this yielding to her. He always had a comeback, but this time, under the circumstances, he felt it better to give in and apologize.

"I didn't mean it," he told her, "You know me, always overreacting, never thinking things through first. It may not help much, but I am sorry and I want to make it up to you."

"How?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll actually spring for dinner one of these days. I'll take you to a movie."

"It'll have to be a movie. I don't wanna be seen anywhere this." She pointed to her right eye.

"Trust me, anyone who knows you, won't be paying attention to your eye. Before you pointed it out to me, I didn't even notice it. Besides, I'd take you out anyway."

She put her arms around his neck and gave him a brief hug. He pulled her from the bed and they walked down the stairs hand in hand.


Angel woke up with the worst headache he'd ever had. He rubbed his eyelids and moaned at the way his head pulsed with pain. He opened his eyes and was happy to see Buffy sitting beside him. She was staring at his hand as she held it tightly. Every few seconds she would sniff as though she'd just finished crying.

"Buffy?" he whispered.

She looked at him, gasped and said, "You're awake!"

"What happened?" he said softly.

Her apparent joy, soon faded when she realized that he was completely oblivious to what had happened. She smiled at him sweetly and said, "Don't worry about it. Not now."

She leaned down and hugged him tightly. He did the same to her. He lightly kissed the top of her head. He was trying to figure out how he'd gotten there. Buffy had started crying again. Sooner or later, she would have to tell him what had happened. She dreaded that moment. All of a sudden, his arms went limp around her. They no longer held her, they just lay on her back. She lifted her head and saw his vacant expression.

His expression becoming complete shock, he said softly, "Don't worry about it?" Buffy sat up. Everything had come back to him at once. She grasped his hand and held it tightly. She said, "I didn't know if the memories would kick in or not."

"I can't believe this happened," he said, looking away from her.

"It wasn't your fault," she insisted.

He wasn't listening, "I don't even deserve to live."

Buffy got mad at this. She brought her hand back and slapped his face.

"Don't say that! Don't you even think it! If I thought for even one second that that were true, believe me, you'd be long dead, by now. I didn't spend the last three months in hell, just to have you come back and say that."

"Then, maybe you should have killed me."

"Will you listen to yourself!"

"What? What do you want me to say? I can't ignore this. I can't make it go away. Do you want me to pretend like this was all a dream, like it didn't happen? I can't. It's real. Because of me, people are dead. I've terrorized you and your friends. I just..." he trailed off.

"It wasn't your fault. But if you insist on blaming yourself, then you're gonna blame me too. Remember? If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have changed like that."

"I'm not blaming you. Even if I did, it wouldn't help."

"Then, maybe this will help. That demon that terrorized my friends and killed those people, is never coming back. It's stuck inside."

"How do you know?"

"Ms. Calendar cast a spell that made your soul permanent. You'll never lose it again. She said that it would take a really powerful sorcerer to take it, now. You should really thank her for this spell. Thanks to it, your need for blood has gone down, you can go out in minimal amounts of sunlight, oh and guess what? One of these days, providing that we both live long enough, we can have kids."

He turned to her, "What kind of spell was this?"

"A damn good one if you ask me." Before Angel could look away again, she put her hand to his face, "Look, the past few months, like I said, have been a regular hell for everybody, but believe me, to have you back, now, it was more than worth it. I mean I- I didn't stop loving you. God knows, I wanted to, everyone told me to get on with my life, but you were always there, always on my mind." His blank stare said it all. He wasn't settled and wouldn't be for a while. She continued "I don't expect you to, exactly dive back into this relationship, but when you're ready, I would really, really like to get things back to normal."

"There's just one problem," he said.

"What?"

He took her hand, "I need you right now, like I've never needed you before, but I don't know if it's enough. I don't feel right about going back to you now, after all this has happened. I'm glad that you brought me back, when you did, before I could hurt anyone, but I really have nothing to come back to."

She squeezed his hand, "You have me you always will."

"But I don't have me. I was told, a long time ago, that if a man can't forgive himself, then no one else's forgiveness will do them any good. If that's true, I'm gonna be damned for some time."

Buffy stood and headed for the door. She wanted to get out before he saw the tears brimming in her eyes.

"Buffy," he called her back and sat up in the bed.

She wiped her eyes and turned around, "Yeah?"

"I just want you to know that everything that demon told you was a lie. I don't-"

"Shhh," Buffy quieted him, then referring to their tryst, said "No regrets. Not a single one."

Angel smiled at her, "I just kinda wish we'd known."

She smiled back, then went to him and gave him a hug. Before she could pull away completely, he kissed her. She gasped slightly at the surprise of it, then relaxed and kissed back. When they pulled away, she said, "You get over things quickly."

"No, I just really needed that," he said with a half smile.

"Get some sleep," she told him, "I'll be back later with the others."

She kissed him again, shortly, this time, then left the room and went to the kitchen, where her friends were waiting. She entered the kitchen looking much light-hearted than when she'd gone up.

"It's about time, you came down," said Xander.

"Any change?" asked Giles.

"He's awake," said Buffy

"How's he doing?" asked Willow.

"He's fine. He's gonna have a headache for a little while, but I think he'll be ok."

"His conscience?" asked Jenny.

"Intact, but eating him up inside," she answered, "He still feels really bad-"

"He should," said Xander.

Buffy looked at him for a second, then decide to ignore his remark. She continued, "But I think he'll be ok."

Willow could her the almost sad tone in her voice. She asked, "Are you sure?"

"I don't know. He seems to want to come back, but I think he's scared. Something feels wrong to him. "

"He probably just feels bad," said Jenny

"Well, he shouldn't."

"Why not?" asked Xander

Buffy didn't ignore him this time, "Maybe because this wasn't his fault."

Xander looked at her in astonishment, "Buffy, I want you to take a time-out and look at what he's done to you. Look at everything he's put you through. How can you be so forgiving with this?"

"How can I not? I can't blame him for this and if you're going to, just remember that I'm part of the reason this whole thing happened. So if you really wanna blame someone, you can blame me, but I can't. I've been through my self-pity phase and you know what? I didn't like it and I don't plan to go back. Right now, I'm trying to help him out of his."

"Well, don't be in such a hurry to. I think that after what we've been through, he shouldn't be allowed to get off so easy."

"You call this easy? God, if I'd known you were gonna act like this, I'd have had you stay with me when he woke up. Xander, he wanted to die. If I blame him for this, I swear he's gonna kill himself!"

Xander walked up to her and said coldly, "If you ask me, he'd be doing us all a favor."

Buffy's fury had reached its peak, she said quietly, "Just get out."

"Hey, I'm just looking out for you."

"Get out," he said with more force, "before I throw you out."

"Think about this rationally, Buffy," he had yelled it.

Losing all self-control, she brought back her fist and punched his face. He fell back against the wall. He was seriously dazed, but there enough to hear her scream, "Get the hell out of my house!"

As soon as he had the movement back in his legs, Xander stood and stumbled out of the house.

Buffy shook with emotion. She sat down and placed her head on the table, much like she had the night before at The Bronze. This time, no one came to put an arm around her or even touch her and she didn't blame them for it. She lifted her head and said, "Look, why don't you guys come back later."

"When?" asked Giles.

"Umm... I don't know. 7:00?"

Her friends gave their signs of affirmation, then one by one, left the room. Willow was the last to leave.

She put a hand on her friend's shoulder, "Are you gonna be alright?"

Buffy shook her head, "I'm not the one you should be asking. Go find him. Tell him- tell him he can come back tonight, if he wants to."

Willow nodded, then gave Buffy a brief hug. A second later, Buffy was alone in the kitchen.

She felt as though she would break down. The stress of the past few days was almost too much for her. She climbed the stairs, hoping that a little sleep would help. Before she reached her room, she heard her name called from down the hall. She took some deep breaths, then walked down the hall and stood in Joyce's doorway.

"Yeah?" she said.

Angel could see the pain in her face. He held out a hand and said, "Come here." She walked to him slowly and took his hand.

"You're supposed to be sleeping," she said sitting on the bed.

"It's kinda hard with all the noise downstairs. What happened?"

Buffy finally broke down. She cried so hard, that she couldn't stay up. She lay down next to him and buried her face in his shoulder. He put his arms around her.

"Don't cry," he said, "What happened?"

"I hit Xander," she said in between sobs.

Angel didn't ask why. He didn't need to he knew.

"He was being such a jerk," she continued, "I've never gone off like that before."

He just held her tighter. The talking stopped there and a couple of minutes later, Buffy's recent sleepless nights caught up with her. They soon both fell fast asleep.

Part 4

Knock knock!

Buffy opened her eyes. She heard the knock again. It was her front door. She slipped out of Angel's arms, which were still around her at the time, then left the dark room.

As she walked through the house, she turned on lights. It was nearly 7:30 and the house had become dark. She opened the door and found Cordelia and Willow on the other side with a pizza box. They entered and went to the kitchen with the food. Buffy got them some plates and a six-pack of Pepsi from the refrigerator.

"So, where's everyone else?" asked Buffy.

"I don't know, they should be here by now." Willow answered her, "Where's Angel?"

"He's upstairs, asleep," Buffy told them.

It was then that they heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Never mind. I guess he's right there," she added.

They heard the steps go down a couple of stairs, the retreat back to Joyce's room. Buffy frowned. She excused herself, then went upstairs. When she was about halfway up, she heard a knock on the door. She continued up the stair, when she heard Willow yell, "I'll get it!"

When Buffy reached the top of the stairs, she walked quietly to her mom's room. She found Angel standing at the dresser. His eyes were closed and he was taking in deep breaths. She walked to him and put her arms around his back. She looked in the mirror that hung over the dresser. She found it strange to see herself hugging air.

"Well, aren't we a lovely couple?" she said sarcastically.

He looked up at the mirror and saw what she saw. Nothing. He stared into his own emptiness, for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, she asked him, "Are you gonna come down?"

He nodded, "Yeah, but I need to go home for a few minutes."

Buffy took his hand, "Ok, C'mon."

She pulled him from the room. As they walked down the stairs, Buffy could feel Angel's hand shaking. He was nervous about facing them. She squeezed his hand tighter, in an attempt to steady it, and continued walking.

They entered the kitchen and found that Giles and Jenny had arrived. They sat at the table with Cordelia and Willow, munching on pieces of pizza. They looked up when Buffy and Angel entered the room. The room fell silent. Willow was the first to speak.

"Hi, guys. You want some pizza?" she said trying to sound cheerful. Buffy looked at Angel questioningly.

"Uh..no," he said, "I need to get home. Can we postpone this for about a half an hour?"

They all nodded.

"I'll take you," said Cordelia.

"No. Let me," said Jenny, "I think we need to talk."

Angel nodded, then opened the door. They went out.

Buffy sat down and let out a long sigh.

"You hungry?" asked Cordelia.

"Starving," Buffy answered reaching for a piece of Hawaiian pizza and taking a huge bite.

"So, what did you two do all day?" asked Willow.

"Slept , mostly." Then realizing how that had sounded, she added, "Slept, slept, not SLEPT. You get it?"

"I get it," answered Willow.

A couple of bites later, Buffy had finished her first piece and started on her second.

"Oops," said Cordelia. She had dropped her plate, spilling pizza sauce all over the tablecloth. Buffy got up to find some cleaner. On her way to the hall closet, where they kept all their cleaning supplies, she passed by the mirror that Cordelia had screamed into. She nearly screamed at her self.

"I really have been asleep all day," she said to her reflection.

She got the cleaner and a few rags and gave them to her friends.

"Can you guys keep yourselves entertained, while I got take a shower?" she asked them.

They all nodded, then began to clean up the mess. Buffy ran up the stairs, hoping that se would be down before Angel got back.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" asked Angel, looking out the window of Jenny's car.

Jenny was glad she was driving. The less she had to look him I the face, the better.

"I owe you an apology," she said after a pause.

"No, you don't," he said, "I owe you one. I nearly killed you, the other night."

"That wasn't your fault. You had no control over your actions. I could've prevented this whole thing. I should've known that- I'm just sorry for putting you through all this."

"So, you were the one who was sent. All this time I thought it was Enyos."

Jenny glanced at him, in a sort of awkward amazement. She nearly missedhim. The darkness of the car, along with his black clothes and pale skin, made him blend in with the shadows.

"According to him, I didn't have a choice. By the time I realized I did, it was too late. How long have you known about him?"

"He followed me for years. When I came here, I thought I'd lost him. I guess that's why you were here." He paused, "So, without the orb, how did you bring me back?"

"I didn't. It was part of the curse."

"But, Buffy said that you cast a spell."

"The spell I cast made your soul permanent. I'm sure you've been filled in on everything else it did."

They pulled up to his place a few seconds later. Angel hopped out and ran to the building. Five minutes had passed, when he finally came out. When he opened the door, the interior light came on. She could now see that the color had returned to his face. He had obviously come home to eat.

The silence on the ride back was uncomfortable. When the got to Buffy's house, Angel finally said, "Look, I'll level with you. I'm annoyed that so much pain has come from this, but I can't blame for all of it. All I can do is be satisfied that it won't happen again."

Jenny thought about this for a second, then said, "That's good enough for me." He gave her a half-smile, then got out of the car. When they got inside, they found their friends where they had left them. Everyone sat around the kitchen table, the only difference being that Buffy now had a towel on her shoulders and dripping wet hair.

"Oh, good, you're back," said Giles.

Jenny and Angel pulled up chairs and sat down.

"So," said Cordelia, "What exactly was the point of this little get together?"

"This is just kind of a clarification thing." Jenny answered, "We need to know...I guess how everyone feels about this. Xander had a real problem with it. Does anyone else?"

"I have no problem with it," said Cordelia, "If you're back, its less hell for the rest of us."

"Well put." Said Willow under her breath.

"We all seem to agree that this is a good thing," said Giles, "But what about you, Angel. I imagine this must be rather rough on you."

Angel was silent for a few moments. Finally, he said, "There are million things going through my head. Rough is definitely one way to describe them. This is much harder than the first time I was restored. I wasn't close to any of the Romany, so I didn't exactly have to face them. But now, I look at Jenny and all I can think of is what happened last week, and with Cordelia, the first thing I see is the bruise I gave her last night."

"Cuts heal, bruises go away," said Jenny.

"Well, I guess-" Giles began. He was interrupted by a knock on the door. Buffy got up and answered it. Xander stood on the other side.

"Umm. Hi," She said to him.

"Buffy, um... can I talk to you outside?"

Buffy went back, to tell everyone what was going on, then returned to the door. Without a word, she stepped outside. Everyone inside ran to the window. They couldn't hear what was being said, but they had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Xander was apologizing. They seemed to argue a little bit, then Buffy put her arms around his neck and hugged him. When they pulled away and turned to go inside, everyone ran back to their chairs in the kitchen.

Buffy entered the kitchen and said, "Hey look who decided to show up."

"Hi," he said, then quickly sat down next to Cordelia.

"Hey you two match," said Jenny, referring to the shiner that Buffy had given Xander on his left eye.

"Well, I'm glad to see that we have something in common," said Xander. Cordelia responded by playfully hitting his chest.

"So, is anything unclear to anyone?" asked Giles.

"Yes," said Angel.

Everyone in them room turned to him.

"What exactly happened last night. How did I get my soul back?"

Jenny, once again, explained, about what she'd found out about the curse.

"So, now what?" asked Buffy, "What's our next move?"

"I was hoping Angel could answer that," Giles replied, "We want to stay ahead of Spike. Is there anything you can tell us."

"Not much that would help. I was a big part of their plan. Without me, they can't even start. You shouldn't have any problems with them, not for awhile, anyway. Whatever Spike wouldn't tell me, Drusilla would, so I have a better understanding of how they think than I think I've ever had, before."

"Would you be able to spy for us?" asked Giles.

"I doubt it."

"Why not."

"Word tends to travel fast in the underground. If even one vampire saw me with Jenny, then Spike knows by now."

"How will you know, if knows," asked Buffy.

"If Spike sends someone to find me, then he doesn't know."

"What if he tries to trick you. I mean, once he's got you down there, it's gonna be hell to get out."

"He won't. He's smarter than that. For one thing, he knows I could take him in a fight. He's still in a wheelchair from that pipe organ that fell on him. Dru's no threat be herself and most vampires don't follow them anymore. They've shown too much weakness. Vampires are a lot like pack animals. Once they find a strong leader, they stick with them, until they're no longer fit to lead."

"So, to put it simply, besides running over our toes, Spike is pretty much harmless," remarked Xander.

"For now, maybe, but remember, he won't be in that chair forever. Luckily, we should have some time before that happens."

"Good, I'm sure we'll need it," said Giles.

"I have a question," Buffy declared. The whole room turned their attention to her.

"I know this off the subject, so sorry," she turned to Angel, "Why were you in my house? What were you looking for?"

Angel smiled slightly as he remembered. He said to her, "The package your mom received the other day had something that would have fit into Spike's plan."

"The statue?"

"Yeah."

"Was he trying to release her?"

"He wanted her power. Anyone that, strong would be one hell of an asset. To top it of, her power was natural. She inherited it, from some early ancestors, or something. She didn't even know all the details. All she could tell was that when she was seventeen or so, she had the ability to control the weather, make twigs grow into trees and heal other people's wounds. From what I've heard, she was more powerful than most witches twice her age."

"She might have been powerful, but she was sure clumsy. Giles told me about her yesterday. Anyone who would mistakenly trap herself in a statue, can't be all that powerful."

"It's just the opposite," said Jenny, "If a witch can't control her power, then she's doomed for disaster."

"That's true," Angel agreed, "Where did you hear this?"

"I translated her husband's journal from a form of Gaelic," said Giles.


"Most of this is true, except for one thing: her going into that statue, wasn't an accident. She was trying to hide. The plan had been
that her husband would leave town and take the statue with him. He was supposed to go to her friend, who knew how to get her out. She only should have been in there for a week. Unfortunately, he was killed that night and she's been in there ever since."

"How did you know her?" asked Willow, "I mean, the way you talk, it sounds like you were there."

Angel thought carefully about how to answer her. He considered giving hints and dancing around, what would be the obvious but realized that a straight answer would be better. He could just say it and get it over with.

"That journal is mine. She... she was my wife. I- Don't look at me that way Buffy!" he said referring to her glare, "at least let me explain."

"Alright," she said, "I'm listening."

"I grew up with Kayla. I met her when I was about seven. We grew up in one of the smallest towns in Northern Ireland, so our circle of friends was considerably small. We had been best friends for years, when our parents decided to kick us out. My father gave me the whole, 'You need to find your fortune in the world and you need to get married or you'll never be truly happy.'" Angel imitated his father by using an Irish accent. This caused slight laughs among his listeners.

"He actually talked like that," he continued, "Now, Kayla's parents weren't so nice about it. They wanted to betroth her to some stranger who lived in a town about sixty miles away. We both went back and forth on what we could do, then it dawned on me that we could solve both our problems by marrying each other. We figured that most people did it this way and we'd be fine."

"I take it by your tone of voice that you were wrong," said Jenny.

"You have no idea. Life seemed to get really complicated after that. To make money, I became an artist. At first, business was slow. My father kept telling me 'Sell the shop, become a farmer.' Eventually, I started selling things at rather quick rate. I had to have Kayla watching the shop, while I was in the back painting something. Then, when she had Catherine, it got ten times worse."

"Catherine?" said Buffy, "She's the baby in the painting, I take it."

Angel nodded, "My daughter."

"Did you love her?" Buffy asked.

"Catherine?"

"Kayla."

Angel gave her a look of slight annoyance.

"It isn't a jealousy question," said Willow defending her friend, "it's a curiosity question."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed, even though it wasn't the case.

"I didn't love her."

"Did she love you?" Buffy asked.

Angel shook his head, "No, she and I were on the same level. To us, friendship was enough."

"So, who was she hiding from?" asked Willow.

"The people of our town. They thought that she was some sort of demon, because she had power."

"How did they find out?" Xander beat everyone to the question.

"I'm not quite sure, but I have a theory. About two weeks before I lost Kayla, two girls came to town. They said that they were from Cavan, but not many people believed them."

"Why not?"

"For one thing, Cavan was a city about a hundred miles away. Who would come to our town from a big city, like that?"

"Well, that's kind of what Buffy did," said Cordelia, "I mean, she left the fun of a big city to come here of all places, where she could easily be attacked by a vampire or a mummy girl or werewolf, all of which could do who knows what and-" she stopped when she saw the way they were all looking at her, "What? I was making a comparison."

"Anyway," Angel continued, "They came from Cavan, without any type of escort. A woman back then, rarely left town without her husband or father. It was unheard of."

"Well, anyway, one of these girls, kept coming into the shop and every night, she would buy something. One night, I had Kayla watching the shop and the girl came in. She glared at Kayla the entire time she was in the shop. It was the first time that she didn't buy anything. For the next few days, Kayla was really paranoid. She kept tell me that people kept giving her strange looks. I didn't notice it until I started getting them too. My theory is that the girl knew about Kayla's power and spread it around town."

"A few nights later, she ran into the house. I don't know where she'd been, but she was hysterical. She said that they were coming for her and she had to escape. She gave me specific instructions on how to get her out. As soon as I finished writing them down, I rode out to meet...well, everyone. There were town officials and neighbors, pretty much anyone else who'd heard about it."

"I rode out on the fastest horse we had and reached the forest just as night fell." Angel's face grew grim at this point, "I remember when I was almost out of the forest, I was thrown from my horse. It turned out to be the girl from Cavan, the one who was always in the shop. I don't remember a whole lot after that, except that my head was spinning. It took a second to realize that I was moving without even thinking about it, that something else had control over me. I watched and listened, as it was all I could do. I didn't even know what I was, I just felt... dead."

The room was silent. No one could think of proper words to say after a story like that. Jenny was the first to speak. Noting Angel's obvious discomfort at the subject of his own death, she decided that the best course of action would be to change the subject.

"Will she be in there forever?" she asked.

"Only until someone can get her out."

"Is it possible to get her out?"

"The instructions are hidden in the journal."

"Where?" asked Giles, "I've read that thing cover to cover and have no such thing."

"Where's the journal?"

"In my car, I'll go get it." He went out the front door and returned a minute later with a small leather-bound book. He handed it to Angel.

"Wow. This thing's been really well preserved." He said examining the book. He lifted the back cover and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"This is it," he said, looking the page over, then handing it to Giles.

Giles read through the paper and said, "It's fairly simple, it requires seven people, various candles of different colors and a large piece of obsidian. We could do this here if we wanted to. Are we talking about doing this?"

Everyone looked around at each other.

"I think we should," said Willow, "I mean, she shouldn't have to be stuck in there forever. Why not get her out?"

"Maybe, because we don't know what we're doing," said Xander, "I don't know about you guys, but messing with supernatural forces isn't exactly my idea of fun."

"C'mon Xander," said Cordelia, "be a man. We've been through some overly creepy things before this. I think we can handle it."

"You guys have fun, but count me out."

"Why?"

"Why?... Well, probably for the same reason Buffy doesn't want to."

"What?" said Buffy, "I never said I wasn't gonna do it."

"No, but I took one look at your face during his story and I've never seen you look so upset. You don't wanna do it, but for his sake, you will."

"That's not true! I agree with Willow on this. She shouldn't be in there," Buffy said, folding her arms and looking away from him.

"Don't drag her into this," said Angel, "If you don't wanna do it, fine, we'll find someone else, but I want you to imagine yourself in my position. I know that if Buffy were in that statue, you'd give an arm and a leg to get her out, but if it were Willow, you'd die for her in a second. The reason for this is because you've known Willow your whole life. You've always been her best friend and you know that she'd do the same for you. Now, I promised Kayla that I would get her out as soon as I could. I'm gonna keep that promise with or without your help."

"Well, good luck finding someone. It may be harder than you think." With that, he left the room. A second later, they heard the front door slam shut.

Part 5

When Xander left that night, he thought that he'd had the last word. He soon realized how wrong he was. Angel's words stuck with him for days afterwards. It was a rainy Tuesday, when Willow told him that Oz would be helping them. It was the same day that Xander changed his mind. He wished Buffy had been at school that day, but she'd been feeling sick the day before and he figured that she was home. So, after school, he went to talk to Angel alone.

When he knocked on the door, he got an unexpected answer. On the other side, he heard a girl, who sounded a lot like Buffy, moan. He was about to knock again, when he heard someone approach from his left.

"Xander?"

Xander turned and saw Angel standing in the hallway, holding a paper bag.

"What's up?" asked Angel.

Xander sighed, "I'm gonna do it."

Angel smiled slightly and took out his key, "Come inside, Xander, but be quiet. Buffy's in here sleeping."

"She's not asleep."

Angel stopped, "Did you knock?"

"Uh...yeah."

"Great. She's got a really bad headache. Since I don't keep any medicines here, I had to go get some."

"You were outside?"

"The clouds were more than enough protection."

Angel entered the apartment, but Xander lingered in the door. Angel went to the bed, where Buffy was just now sitting up. She looked over at the door.

"Hey, Xander," she said, "is school out already?"

"It's been out," he said.

Angel opened the bag and pulled out a small bottle of Tylenol.

"Take two of these," he told her.

"And call you in the morning?"

"Or sooner," he kissed her forehead, then got up to put the rest of the things away. He took out a six-pack of Dr. Pepper.

"You want one?" he asked Xander.

"Uh...yeah."

Angel took two sodas off their rings and put the rest in the fridge. There was one more item in the bag. After deciding not to take it out, he put the bag on top of the refrigerator then he and Xander walked outside to talk.

Angel handed Xander one of the cans and opened the other. Xander opened his and asked, "So, what's the deal with Buffy?"

"She comes here when she's sick. Her mom has some kind of If-you-can-move-you're-going-to-school policy. So, she comes here, sleeps all day, then goes home feeling refreshed and ready for school the next day. Today, however, she hasn't slept a whole lot. We've been talking all day, kind of trying to figure out our relationship."

"You two gonna make it?"

Angel took a drink, "Yeah...we're gonna be just fine. So, what made you change your mind?"

"What you said, stuck with me. I don't like to think of Willow in there. That's not my only reason, though. I decided that I've hated you for pretty stupid reasons up to this point. I think it's time I made amends."

Angel touched his can to Xander's in the "Cheers!" fashion. They both smiled and took a drink.


Buffy looked up to the sound of the door opening. She watched Angel enter the apartment and cross over to her.

"You feeling any better?" he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed. He felt her forehead, "Hmm, you've cooled down a lot."

"I'm feeling better. What happened out there?"

"We have seven. Xander's decided to join us. We're gonna meet them at the library at 7:00."

"That's good," she said, still half asleep.

Noticing her drowsiness, he kissed her for a long time. When he pulled away, she looked at him with alert eyes. He got up from the bed and grabbed the bag from the top of the fridge then returned to the bed and kissed her again.


Buffy woke to find herself engulfed in warmth. It wasn't until she felt the arms around her waist, that she realized where she was. She smiled at the thought of the one holding her. She could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck and his chest against thew skin of her back. The smile grew at the though of the past few hours.

She looked around the room and squinted in the dark to see the clock at the far end of the room. She sat up quickly. 6:48! They had twelve minutes to get to the library.

She shook Angel and said "Wake up!"

"Huh?" he said sleepily.

"C'mon, we gotta go. It's 6:48."

"What!" Angel sat up.

It took them ten minutes to get dressed and out of there. When they got to the library, they were relieved to find that they hadn't missed anything. Jenny and Giles were there setting up. A few minutes later, Cordelia pulled up with Willow and Xander.

The set up was simple. Three candles stood on tall gold holders, which formed a triangle around a flat piece of obsidian with the statue on top.

As Giles read the instructions, everyone followed along by performing the actions he described. They each put a hand on the stone, then held hands with someone else. Their eyes were closed as they chanted the incantation, so they didn't see the blue circle of energy that formed around them. The circle went above their heads, then brought itself down around the statue. At this point the stone began to shake. Giles soon put their fears to rest, by telling them to remove their hands from the stone. They joined hands and stood in a circle, while continuing with their chant. When the rattling sound ceased, they opened their eyes. Next to the statue, a redheaded girl of about nineteen lay on the floor unconscious. Angel broke form the circle and ran to her.

"Kayla!" he called to her, but she didn't stir. He put her ear his mouth, to listen for breath. A second later, he felt her lips smack
against his cheek. He turned to her and was relived to see her eyes open and her mouth smiling at him.

"It's about time," she said through a thick Irish accent. He hugged her for a long time, then help her to her feet. She looked around the room in confusion.

"Aneglus?" she said, "Where are we?"

"It's a really long story."

"Exactly how long was I in there."

"Uh... about two hundred-eighteen years."

With a quick motion, she slapped him upside the head.

"Hey!"

"'Hey', nothing! Whatever happened to 'I'll have you out in a week'- Wait, what was that?" she grabbed onto his chin to keep his head in place. He tried to move away once, but she said, "Don't you look away from me!" and kept his gaze. After a while, she said, "Oh, damn it, you're a vampire." Her face suddenly became wild as she realized what this meant, "You took the south road! I told you, 'Don't take the south road. It's a bad road, it'll only get you killed.' Now look at you, you're paying the price for not listening." As sudden realization came to her, "Oh, dear God, you're not going to kill me, are you?"

"No, I'm not gonna kill you," he reassured her.

"Oh, thank goodness...why not?"

"Look again."

Again, she held his chin and stared into his eyes. It took awhile, but eventually she said, "Oh, there you are."

"Yeah, I'm here."

"So, who are these people?"

He made introductions, then told the long story of how they had all come together. Kayla listened with interest to every detail.

"What happened to Catherine?" she asked, when he had finished.

"Susan and Patrick adopted her."

"When did they come back?"

"Two days after we left. She grew up and married a nobleman.

"Good, I wouldn't have had it any other way. My only concern is that I don't think I can exactly fit in here. I'm a million miles and two centuries from home. How am I supposed to live here?"

"We can find you a place," said Buffy, "I'm just wondering where to put you till then."

Kayla gasped as she suddenly remembered, "I have somewhere to go."

"Where?" asked Angel.

"I inherited a place from my grandmother."

"It's been a long time," said Giles, "It may not even be there anymore."

"I'll go check on it," she said standing up.

"Wait, do you have to go now?" asked Angel.

"Yes," With a wave of her arm, she disappeared.

"Damn it!" said Angel, "I hate it when she does that."

"Is this normal?" asked Buffy.

"Unfortunately, yes. In mid-sentence, she'll remember something that she has to do and poof! she'll be gone. We won't see her for awhile."


Buffy turned over for what she hoped would be the last time. She had been lying in bed for nearly an hour and still hadn't fallen asleep. The past few days remained on her mind and refused to go away.

She suddenly felt the presence of another person in the room. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see Kayla standing in thew middle of her room.

"Uh...hi," said Buffy, flipping on the light.

"Hello, I'm sorry for showing up so unexpectedly. I wanted to use that phone thing, but Angelus- Oh sorry, Angel said that it would make too much noise and wake your mother."

"Hmm, he's learned," she said with a half smile. She sat up, "So, what can I do for you?"

"I don't know," she said sitting on the edge of the bed, "I suppose I had no where else to go. As nice as my home is, it's very boring, there's no one there to talk to."

"Did you have a particular subject in mind?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Oh, come on!" Buffy said, leaning back against a wall, "We both want to know the same thing."

Kayla gave in and played along, "Alright, you ask first."

"Ok then, flat out, what was he like back then?"

"Well, I've heard it said, that most men don't mature until their early twenties or so. Let's just say that it's taken him a couple of centuries."

"Well, he's been though a lot."

"Aye, and it's been good for him. He has some intelligence, now!"

"So, what you're saying is that he was kind of an idiot back then?"

"No, not entirely. He was a good man. You should have seen him with Catherine. He loved that girl more than anything. You see, at that time, Angel was your typical man: around you, he's sweeter than honey, but around other men, he feels the need to prove his manliness."

"Today's men do that by comparing biceps and having belching contests," said Buffy.

Kayla sighed, "So, society hasn't changed."

Buffy laughed. She had never associated Angel with belching contests. The two of them carried on like this for about another half-hour, sharing stories and making jokes. Contrary to her original belief, Buffy felt that she and Kayla would get along just fine. When Buffy started yawning, Kayla decided it was time that she left.

"Before I go, I want to know something. Now from talking to him, I can tell, he's really got it bad for you. It's ten times what he ever had for Susan and do me a favor by not asking him about Susan, please. But I'm wondering if you feel the same, especially considering everything that's happened in the last few months. He told me all about that. So, I'm just curious, do you love him?"

Buffy gave her a smirk, "You've been here five hours and already you're eager for the gossip. Well, for your information, yes, I love him."

"I asked him the same thing. I met with him about an hour ago one of the first things out of my mouth was, 'Are you in love with her, now?' He laughed at first at how open I was about it, but eventually answered. He didn't say yes or no, but I knew."

"What did he tell you?"

"He said that a few months ago, when he turned against you all, he would rather have had you awake, so that you could have killed him right then, than to have you suffer the pain that he caused you."

Buffy smiled, obviously content with this answer.

"Well, goodnight, Buffy. I'm sure that I'll see you again."

"Bye, Kayla."

With a wave of her arm, Kayla was gone. Buffy yawned and shutoff her light. Just before she fell asleep, she was thinking about how, once again, her world was good and that it was about damn time.

THE END