She knew as soon as her back hit the ground that she wouldn't be getting up again. She simply didn't have the strength to move her muscles, to make her legs support her. The vampire came towards her, a soft growl coming from his throat as he kneeled down next to her, moving her hair out of the way of her neck, his touch almost gentle. Buffy closed her eyes and waited for death, wishing she'd had more time, just another day. She'd felt the same way when she'd faced the Master, only this time there would be no coming back. A small smile graced her lips, an expression of peace. There was no more time, and she didn't want to die, but if she was going to, at least it would be by this unknown vampire's hands, instead of Spike, Drusilla, or even the now-gone Angelus. No true enemy had defeated her, just this nobody vampire who happened to be huge.

She felt the vampire's teeth on her neck, but never felt him piercing the skin. Her eyes flew open in curiosity, to see that the vampire was fighting desperately with someone . . . Angel. The smile stayed on her lips, for an entirely different reason. She only wished she could manage to move, to watch him in action. For the first time in two months she was seeing Angel, and her head hurt to much to really look at him. Life could be so unfair sometimes.

That was when she heard it, the sound of someone smashing into a wall, unfortunately easy for her to recognize. She managed to sit up, expecting to see the huge vampire taken care of. To her shock, however, she realized it was Angel who was slumped against the wall . . . and he wasn't conscious.

Somehow the strength returned to her body, and she was on her feet in an instant, stake in hand as the vampire descended towards Angel, apparently contend to feed off another vampire. He never got the chance as she plunged the stake into his heart. Her cold face was the last thing he saw before he turned to dust at her feet.

Immediately she turned towards Angel, forgetting her own wounds in her haste to make sure he was all right. "Angel?" she said softly, kneeling down beside him. "Angel!" she called again. His leg was lying at an unnatural angle, she knew it was probably broken. But he should have regained consciousness by now, she'd had Angel by her side in enough fights to know how long it took him to recover from a good bump on the head.

That was when she noticed it. His chest, rising and falling in a somewhat slow but still steady rhythm. Her eyes widened in shock, and she put her now shaking hand to his throat. Sure enough there was a pulse. Slower than a normal human, but a pulse none the less. Her mouth dropped open in surprise. "Angel?" she repeated, her voice low and uncertain.

There was still no reply. Gently she leaned forward and saw the blood matting the back of his head, that must have been one hell of a good throw for the now dead vampire. Buffy tried to calm down, the pain in her own body reminding her of her own injuries. She just didn't know what to do, he needed help, obviously, his leg was broken, he'd sustained one hell of a head injury . . . but these were normally things he'd just wince at, shrug off, and be recovered from in a few minutes. She didn't know what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to help him.

Buffy looked around, trying to get a feel for her location. She was a block or so from the library, she'd just have to find some way to get Angel there. She offered him a silent apology as she grabbed both his arms and began to drag.

"Giles!" Buffy called out desperately as she forced the library doors open, still dragging the unconscious vampire behind her. "Giles!" she called again when she heard no reply.

"What is it, Buffy?" Giles asked, sounding tired as he walked down the stairs from the bookstacks to the main floor, briefcase in hand. He was obviously prepared to go home for the evening, and hadn't been expecting the Slayer.

"We have a problem," she said as soon as she saw him. He blinked in puzzlement, then saw Angel lying on the floor in an unconscious heap. He looked at her for an explanation. "I don't know how, or why, or whatever, but . . . Giles . . . he has a pulse," she told her Watcher softly. "I was fighting this really big vamp guy, and let me tell you this was one of those nights of luck, cause he nearly killed me a thousand times before Angel showed up. Anyway, he pulled this guy off of me, the vamp threw him against the wall, he broke his leg and hit his head against the side of the building. Giles, it wasn't major, I mean, it was major, but not . . . not vampire major. He should have been wide awake and ready to go like five seconds afterwards. I don't know . . . Giles, I don't understand!"

Giles had already moved to Angel's side and leaned down, checking his throat and then his wrist for a pulse. It was most definitely there. He frowned and looked up at Buffy, letting her see his own confusion about this situation. "This is . . . entirely unheard of," Giles said slowly.

"Well, no, really!" The Slayer was pacing back and forth in the library, her eyes wide and concerned. "Giles, this is . . . I don't under . . . I mean, I don't . . . I just don't get it! Why would this . . . how could it . . . I mean, I'm happy about it . . . I think . . . but it's just . . . I don't! . . . How is this . . . " She seemed incapable of completing a sentence, her hands gesturing wildly around the room.

Giles stood, abandoning Angel for the moment, and walked towards her. "Buffy, relax," he told her in no uncertain terms. "If I had to wager a guess I'd say J . . . Ms. Calendar had something to do with this. I'll call her right now from my office. Why don't you call Willow or Xander, have one of them come down here. I think you could use the company right now."

Buffy looked at him, grateful for his calmness, and not even minding the intense curiosity she saw in his eyes, the excitement about having something new to research. Instead she just nodded and headed towards the phone.

"Hello?" Ms. Calendar's voice rang through the line, sounding soft and subdued.

"Jenny? It's Giles," Giles said, his voice clipped and short. He simply couldn't help it, he hadn't been able to forgive her for deceiving them for so long.

"Rupert? What's wrong?" she asked.

"Some very . . . unusual . . . things are going on," he told her. "I was wondering if you might have something to do with them."

"Unusual regarding . . . Angel?" she guessed, and could almost see him nod.

"Yes."

She smiled. "I found a ritual," she told him. "I . . . I needed to make amends, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. I found a ritual to change a vampire back. It shouldn't be done yet though."

"What do you mean, done?" Giles asked, curiosity replacing the coolness that had been in his voice only a moment before.

"I mean it isn't an automatic thing," she explained, sounding exasperated. "This isn't Tale of the Body Thief, Rupert, these things aren't instantaneous. At least this particular spell isn't. It's been two months now, right? Since he regained his soul?"

"Yes."

"Yes . . . I guess it would be starting now," she told him.

"What would be starting?" Giles asked, exasperation replacing the curiosity that had once been impatience.

Jenny smiled. "The change. I don't have specifics, these spells are rather old and don't like giving details. But I'd say in about another month or so he'll be fully human."

Giles felt his temper flare slightly. "And you didn't feel this was important enough to tell any of us?"

She shrugged. "Not really. Why?"

"Why? Buffy almost got killed tonight! Angel intervened, and got hurt in the process."

Jenny bit her lip, wincing slightly. "I'm sorry, Rupert. I didn't think . . . I just assumed I'd let nature take its course."

Giles sighed, trying to release the anger. "That's all right . . . I have to go."

"Okay," she told him, her voice sounding soft and more than just a little bit hurt. "For what it's worth . . . I'm sorry."

For the first time in a long while Giles felt a flicker of hope. "We'll discuss this later," he told her.

"All right. Good-bye."

"Bye," he replied, and hung up the phone.

When Giles returned to the main room of the library Willow was there, talking calmly and softly to Buffy, who still had an almost amusing mixture of expressions on her face. Confusion, worry, fear . . . all played a part.

A low moan echoed off the walls, and the next instant Buffy was by Angel's side. "Angel? Can you hear me?" she asked, trying to force her voice to sound calm and not particularly succeeding.

He blinked and looked at her with pain filled eyes. "Mhmm," he muttered, closing his eyes against the library lights.

She grasped his hand, trying to offer support, and instead her eyes widened in fear; his hands were clammy. Automatically she reached one hand up to feel his forehead, and her eyes widened further when she realized he was physically hot to the touch. There was still vampire within him, if he had changed overnight there was no doubt but that he would have noticed. It couldn't be good for him to be this hot and still a vampire. If only they could take him to the hospital, if only he had insurance, a last name, anything . . . "Angel? Don't worry, okay? You're gonna be fine."

He opened his eyes halfway to look at her and tried to fight back the low moan that threatened to escape his throat. He couldn't remember ever feeling so lousy in his life, even when he'd been human. Angel opened his mouth, hoping to say something reassuring, and found that speaking was simply to much of an effort. He offered her a half smile, which came off as more of a grimace, then faded back into unconsciousness gratefully.

"Did you find anything out?" Buffy asked Giles, not moving her eyes away from Angel's face.

Giles nodded and explained to Buffy what Jenny had told him. Buffy's eyes had widened in surprise throughout his explanation, and she blinked. "You're kidding," she said flatly; it wasn't a question.

"No, I'm not," he replied, totally serious.

"Wow . . . " she trailed off, staring at Angel's face again. "I wish she had warned us though," she added softly. "I mean, this whole thing could have been prevented . . . he would have known better than to try and help me." She paused, then sighed and finally turned to Giles. "What are we going to do?" she asked her watcher. "He's running a fever, we can't take him to a hospital . . . and we don't know what's wrong. We don't know how long it's going to take for him to fully change, we don't know anything . . . "

Giles offered her a weak smile. "It'll be okay," he assured her. "We'll figure something out . . . there must be something written about this happening . . . I'll call the Watcher Council."

Buffy smiled. "You guys have a council?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes," he replied. "Though usually they are not called unless there's a major emergency."

She couldn't help but laugh. "A major emergency? The way life has been around here since . . . well, always . . . I would have thought they'd be called together everyday."

"No, they're usually only called for research problems, and I don't think I have anything here regarding something like this. The others might be able to help."

Buffy nodded. "Go do that then," she said. "Do you know what time it is?"

"It's midnight," Willow replied, speaking for the first time since Giles had come into the room. Giles looked at her for a moment, then turned back into his office to make the phone calls. "How are you?" Willow asked after a moment of silence.

"Not so good," Buffy replied softly. "I would have thought something like this would have made me happy . . . but it's not. It's not that I don't want him to be, you know, just a normal guy, but . . . "

Willow understood. "The timing isn't great," she said, filling in the blank Buffy had left.

"Isn't great? There's an understatement," she sighed again. "This . . . it's the first time I've seen him since . . . this isn't exactly how I pictured our reunion." Buffy's eyes filled with tears in spite of herself, and Willow immediately headed over to her and put one arm around her shoulder.

"It's okay," Willow assured her. "Angel'll get better . . . and then there won't be anything keeping you apart."

Buffy blinked and looked up at her friend, then sniffed and wiped at her eyes. "You're right," she admitted after a moment. "You're absolutely right."

"Hey," Buffy whispered softly to Angel three nights later, when he finally began to come around. He'd been moved to the back of the library, behind locked doors and away from any sunlight. Giles was still unsure of what exactly was happening, or how long it would take, and despite Ms. Calendar's assurances he still preferred to be on the safe side.

Angel blinked once and looked at her in confusion. "Where am I?" he asked, trying to sit up. Buffy's hand immediately went to his chest, forcing him back down.

"You're in the library," she told him. "The back room, to be exact." She smiled. "You saved my life again . . . you know I have no idea how I'm ever going to be able to make all this up to you."

Angel yawned sleepily and pushed Buffy's hand away, sitting up and rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "How long have I been here?" he asked.

"Three nights, four days," Buffy told him matter-of-factly. She shook her head when he tried to stand and gave him a dark look. "You're not going anywhere so don't even try to leave," she said in a no-nonsense voice.

"Why not?" Angel asked, getting to his feet and ignoring her. As soon as he did the room spun around in circles and he sank back down to the floor. "Oh. That's why," he said after a moment, his voice dry.

"Think of it this way," Buffy told him, "you and I can talk, and you don't have to feel at all guilty about it cause you don't have much choice in the matter."

"That's a comfort," Angel replied, but in truth he wasn't going to protest about anything in his current situation. He didn't think he had the strength to make it all the way to his apartment in any case.

"Sorry, that's just the way it is." Buffy shrugged with one shoulder and leaned back against the wall next to Angel. "So . . . we gonna talk about this new 'let's avoid Buffy' game, or you want to go back to sleeping?"

Angel blinked, not quite feeling up to this conversation, and unable to think of a reply. He didn't want Buffy to go, as embarrassing as it was to admit, even to himself, he was scared. He felt . . . strange, somehow. Yet at the same time he really didn't want to talk about his and Buffy's relationship, or lack thereof. She understood his reasons, she had to. She was to intelligent not to. In fact, she should have agreed with him wholeheartedly. "You know why," he said, instead.

Buffy bit her lip and nodded slightly. "Yeah, I know why, Angel . . . but you can't just totally avoid me forever. What happened happened, and now we just have to find a way to move past it and move on."

"Move on?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "How can we possibly move on? Buffy, we need to face the facts here. I'm a vampire, you're the slayer. We tried to ignore it and look what happened. If that isn't enough proof that this can't ever work I don't know what is."

"It would be," she agreed after a moment, "if there weren't other things going on that you don't know about."

"Like?" he asked.

"Like the fact that you're becoming, ever so slowly, and at a really inappropriate time, human."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," she answered with a slow smile. "Ms. Calendar, she found a spell or something."

"Ms. Calendar?"

"Oh, that's right, you don't know about that. She's a gypsy. She was sent here to spy on the two of us, ya know, make sure your little curse was still intact and all. But she felt guilty about it afterwards, and found a spell to make you human again. It's not a quick thing, or anything, I mean it did take two months to even start working. But, eventually, there isn't going to be a single thing keeping us apart."

Angel wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that. Somehow, 'oh, that's nice' seemed inappropriate, but at the moment he was beyond caring. All he knew was that he had a headache, and having Buffy this close to him was more distracting than he wanted to admit. He was beginning to wonder if he should have just gone back to sleep.

"Well, let's not all jump for joy here," Buffy said, sounding hurt and crossing her arms. Angel blinked and looked at her for a moment, then sighed. She was still so naive, how in the world could she be so naive after all that happened? Even becoming human, though it would be wonderful, wouldn't, couldn't, erase all that he'd done to her. She just didn't seem to understand that. "It's just what?" she asked, looking at him with worried eyes. "How can you not understand yet? It took me less than a week to figure it out, you've had two hundred something years, and you haven't yet."

"Figured what out?"

She reached out with one hand to caress his face. "It wasn't you. Angel, if you have no control over what you're doing, then it's not you. It's not. There's no real reason for you to feel guilty about what you did, because you didn't do it. It was the demon in you, not you. Not ever, ever you. You haven't done anything wrong . . . except when you're cryptic, cause that's really bad . . . but you know what I mean. If I can realize that, God, if even Giles, Mr. Vampire-Hater, could figure that out, you should be able to."

"It's not that simple, Buffy."

"Yes, it is. It's exactly that simple. I figured it out as soon as I found out you'd . . . reverted, I guess, is the right word. The things you said, the things you did, weren't things that you would ever do. Yeah, you lost a round with Mr. Demon who likes to take up residence in you, but you're winning the next one. Once that little spell of Ms. Calendar's works and you start to get better . . . the demon'll be gone Angel. Gone. Moved out of residence, et cetra. You just have to learn to separate the two, like everyone else has. There's you, then there's the other guy. Once the other guy's gone, then there's just you. And there won't be a damn thing keeping us apart . . . ever again."

Angel bit back a sigh, wishing he could believe that, wishing things really were that simple, wishing he could separate Angelus from himself so easily. But the truth was Angelus was him, had been a part of him for so long; Angel wasn't sure who he was without the demon. Buffy saw the look on his face and misinterpreted it. "Go back to sleep," she told him gently, kissing him on the forehead. "We'll talk some more tomorrow." Standing, she left the office and shut off the light.

"How's Angel doing?" Willow asked the next day at lunch, munching on an apple and watching Xander and Cordelia talk with a frown on her face.

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know," she replied. "I would have thought he'd be happier about all this . . . maybe I'm over-reacting, he is pretty sick, I just . . . I feel like it doesn't even make a difference to him."

Willow raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't make a difference?" she repeated. "I doubt that, Buffy. I'm sure it does, and it will once he's all better."

"I hope so." She sighed and took a sip of her soda. "Things are just so complicated right now. I wish we could have made up before hand, you know? This would probably be a lot easier on both of us if this wasn't the first time we'd really talked or anything since he got his soul back."

"Probably," she agreed. "But I wouldn't worry about it."

"I know. I shouldn't. But it's hard to help it. I just want things back to the way they were, you know? It was so much simpler before he reverted, or whatever."

Willow nodded. "True. But maybe things will be better now."

Buffy shook her head. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "All I've been doing for . . . like . . . ever, is talk about Angel. How are you?"

"I'm fine," she replied. "Oz and I are pretty much a couple now, I guess. He just, I don't know how to explain it. I care about him, but . . . "

"He's not Xander," Buffy supplied. "Believe me, I know how that one goes."

"It's okay, though," Willow assured her. "You talking about Angel, I mean. Things have been pretty rough for you guys."

Buffy laughed. "There's an understatement. Still . . . you have your life too, I feel like I'm taking advantage. You shouldn't let me go on and on about him like I do."

"I want you two to be together," Willow replied. "It's so unfair, you both love each other so much . . . no two people who love each other that much should have so many problems."

"I totally agree. Angel's just been so distant . . . I guess that could have something to do with the fact that he's sick and all, but it's like he doesn't even want me around or something. Like he's scared he'll try to hurt me again. I don't know how to get through to him . . . Ugh! I'm doing it again! Willow, stop me!"

Willow laughed and shook her head. "It's sweet," she said. "I mean, at least you know he loves you and he knows you love him." She stopped and shook her head again. "I'm sorry, that was unfair. You two have it a lot harder than I do with my relationships . . . or lack thereof."

"Just tell him already, Will," Buffy said, shaking her head. "Angel and I also don't have a quick fix, but you do. If you just told him at least it would be out in the open."

"No," Willow said quickly. "He's in love with Cordelia now." She rolled her eyes heavenward. "I just don't get it. Cordelia? He's hated her since, like, forever. He'd choose Cordelia over me, that pretty much goes a long way in saying what he'd say if I told him the truth."

"Maybe, but you'll never know unless you try," she reminded her friend. "Anyway, I'm going to go see how Angel's doing . . . maybe then I can stop thinking about him." Willow gave her a doubtful look. "Well, it's a shot, at least," she said with a frown.

Willow nodded and waved her friend off, then leaned back against the couch she'd been sitting on, mulling over Buffy's words. Telling Xander how she felt would involve a hell of a lot of courage . . . and it would mean hurting Oz, too. Closing her eyes, she reminded herself about Buffy and Angel, and all the problems they had. Usually that made her feel better, this time, however, it did not. Cordelia laughed at something Xander had said, the sound drifting over to where Willow sat as she opened her eyes to look at them.

"Hey!" Oz said, sitting down next to her. "What's my favorite girl thinking about?"

Willow blinked and looked up at him. "Nothing," she replied weakly. "Nothing at all." She leaned back against him and turned away from Xander, pushing all thoughts of him from her mind.