Adult-FanFiction.org : Buffy

Humanity	By : QueenB Category: AtS/BtVS Crossovers > Het - Male/Female > Angel(us)/Buffy > Angel(us)/Buffy Views: 4278 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 11
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- 13
The sister was bouncing up and down in the seat with excitement. Last night she’d spent a great deal of time in Spike’s company. Not that he’d wanted to keep her out late; it was just that the avoidance spell had him wandering about in circles, unable to get anywhere close to the Summers household. They’d also encountered a couple of monsters that took him a while to dispatch. When Dawn recognized the effects of the spell, she’d waited until he was distracted by the demons and left as quickly as possible.
Privately, she’d been starting to regret telling him about the proposed trip to Los Angeles. The blonde vampire might take it into his head to stir up trouble. Still, with the avoidance spell in place, he couldn’t get anywhere near Buffy. How much harm could he do?
__________
Buffy was excited too--and considerably nervous. She’d tried to sound Angel out on the phone as to any major changes in his life, but he’d avoided mentioning a baby. So what was he going to do with the kid--hide it under a floorboard the whole time she was there? He had warned her about a demon named Lorne (and what kind of name was that for a demon, anyway?) that was staying at the hotel. He’d assured her that she’d like him. She wondered what kind of demon was so likeable and what it was doing shacked up at the hotel.
When Buffy parked across the street, Dawn craned her neck out the window. “Wow, it’s big. He owns all this?”
“Actually, I think he just leases it, Dawn.”
Her sister nodded in approval. “Cool. It looks really classy. It’s too bad we can’t stay here permanently.” Dawn brightened, “Hey, Buffy, do you think we could…”
“Give up patrolling the Hellmouth, move away from our friends and stay near a vampire who might lose his soul and rip us to shreds? Absolutely not. This is just supposed to be a carefree weekend, totally free from….caring or whatever.”
Buffy pushed open the hotel doors while hefting both bags effortlessly in one hand. “Hello? Anybody home?”
There was no answer at first, then a brunette bespectacled girl came stumbling out from behind the desk. “Hi! Welcome to Angel…oh, you’re Buffy. You remember me, rahght? I’m Fred.”
Buffy held out her hand which Fred pumped just a little too enthusiastically. The last time she’d been at the Hyperion she’d barely caught a glimpse of the girl, what with her compulsive tendency to hide in her room and under the furniture. She pulled her hand from Fred’s too-tight grip and said, “Sure, I remember you. This is my sister, Dawn. Dawn, Fred.”
“Hi, there! It’s so good to meet you. Is it true you were created by monks? ‘Cause Ah must say, for guys who never knew the touch of a woman, they got all the details rahght,” Fred gushed.
Buffy and Dawn’s mouths dropped open. Buffy knew something of Fred’s history but Angel had been sketchy on the details. Not that she’d been paying attention. She’d been too upset about her sexual tussle with Spike. Now she wondered if this girl were mentally unbalanced. She hadn’t met anyone so thoughtlessly outspoken since Anya and…
Cordelia came wandering out of Wesley’s office holding a damp rag to her forehead. “Fred? I thought you were getting me an aspirin?” She paused at seeing Buffy in the lobby. “Oh, Buffy? I didn’t know…look, you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not my usual perky self. I’ve just had a vision and these things take the stuffing right out of me.”
She slumped onto one of the lobby couches while Fred scrambled under the front desk counter, finally emerging with a bottle of aspirin. “Wait a minute. I’ll get a glass of water.”
Cordelia waved a weary hand. “Don’t bother. I’ll just eat them dry.” Buffy watched in concern as Cordelia twisted off the cap, shook three tablets into her hand and popped them all in rapid succession. Her eyes fluttered shut and then she re-opened them with an obvious effort. “You must be Dawn. I’m Cordelia, vision girl, if you haven’t guessed.”
Dawn waved feebly. “Actually, we’ve already met.”
Cordelia blinked. “We have? Oh right, monk spell.”
There was an awkward silence, then Fred grabbed at their bags, grunting at the weight. “If you’ll follow me, Ah’ll show you to your rooms.”
Cordelia protested, “Fred, we may be staying in a hotel, but you don’t have to provide valet service. Buffy has all that Slayer strength. I’m sure she can carry her own bags.” With that final statement, Cordelia’s head dropped back onto the couch. She stretched out and in moments was fast asleep.
__________
The other three women tiptoed from the lobby. “The visions really take a lot out of her. Otherwise I’m sure she would have been a lot more polite,” Fred whispered.
Buffy smirked. “I remember Cordelia from Sunnydale. This is way more polite than she ever got back there.”
Fred appeared surprised at this news. “Oh. Well, if you say so. She doesn’t talk about Sunnydale much except to mention some of the odd things that used to happen there.”
Buffy remained silent. She wasn’t in the mood to trade stories just then. In one corner of her mind, she recalled it was broad daylight outside. Where was Angel? Was he in the sewers tracking some monster? She couldn’t sense him through their mystical bond--if he was out, where was the baby? And when was someone going to introduce her to him?
Dawn squealed in delight in being shown her room and then tried to regain typical teenage indifference. “Cool. Is there a minibar?” She laughed at Buffy’s expression. “Relax, Buffy. I didn’t come here to drink, I came to shop. Hey, what’s this?” She walked over to a door near her and opened it. “Great! It’s another room.” She peered around. “That’s funny. It’s the same as this one.”
“And here’s your room, Buffy.” Fred pointed through the door.
Dawn began to protest. “No way! I thought I was getting my own room!”
“You are. This is a suite. The door opens between the two rooms. We just thought since you were sisters, you’d want to be close to each other.”
Dawn swung around and plopped onto her bed. “We’re not that close,” she muttered.
Buffy ignored her and smiled gratefully at Fred. “It’s a neat setup, Fred. Thanks for being so thoughtful.”
Fred gave a broad grin, obviously pleased at the praise. “You’re welcome.” She started as if she’d remembered something important and gave a hurried flip of her hand. “Well, Ah’ll just leave the two of you to get settled in. See you later. Sing out if you need anything.” She turned and practically ran back downstairs.
Dawn stared after Fred’s rapidly retreating figure. “Wow. Nervous much? What’s up with her?”
Buffy said, “The way Angel tells it, she was a slave in some alternate dimension and lived in a cave for five years.”
“Oh.” Dawn nodded as if this was the most natural explanation in the world. She sat on the edge of Buffy’s bed and bounced experimentally a few times. “So…you want to tell me what is you came to see Angel about?”
Buffy hesitated. The dream she’d experienced had been--intense, for lack of a better word. But it wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with Dawn. “It’s kinda private, Dawn. I can only really talk about it with Angel.”
“Sure, whatever.” Dawn tried to hide her annoyance. God, she was sick of Buffy treating her like a child. Her older sister had dragged her all the way to the big city and wouldn’t tell her why. Fine. Two could play at that game. She just wouldn’t tell Buffy about her late-night conversation with Spike.
She got up and stomped back into her room. “I’m going to ask Fred if there’s a key to this door. Let me know when you want to go shopping.”
She slammed the door sharply and Buffy heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe her first reunion with Angel should be in private. She got up abruptly and moved softly to the door leading to the hallway. She wanted to take a quiet look around and see if she could find Angel. No, if she wanted to be honest, she wanted to see if she could find that baby.
She walked carefully down the corridor, all the while listening for any noise downstairs. When she reached Angel’s door, she grasped the knob and twisted. Damn! It was locked. There was no way she could get in without leaving an obvious sign of her entry. She decided to resist the enticement presented and see if she could get something to eat.
Buffy came quietly down the stairs and heard someone softly singing in the kitchen. When she stepped in the door, she saw Fred’s back turned towards her, rocking gently back and forth in an all-too-familiar rhythm. “Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop……”
“Boy or girl?” Buffy asked. Fred stopped with an audible squeak and swung around. The baby she was cuddling began to fuss. Buffy stepped over to it with what she hoped was an innocent expression on her face. “It’s really cute. Well? Is it a boy or a girl?”
Fred stammered, “Uh, uh, it, it’s a boy.”
“What’s his name?”
“Connor.”
Buffy appeared to digest that. “Connor. That’s an unusual name. It’s Gaelic for ‘wise’ isn’t it? May I?”
Fred placed Connor in Buffy’s outstretched arms with obvious reluctance. Buffy was silently grateful she’d looked up the name on Willow’s laptop before taking off for L.A. Gaelic meant Irish. Angel was Irish. The suspicions that revelation had aroused had been bouncing around in her mind ever since then. She did her best to keep her tone light and disinterested. “How old is he?”
“Only a couple of weeks.”
Buffy mused, “He can’t be yours then. You weren’t pregnant when I was here last and neither was Cordelia. Whose baby is it?” She cooed at the baby but kept one eye trained on the fidgety woman in front of her. Something told her Fred was a terrible liar. If she tried lying to a direct question, Buffy was sure she’d catch her at it.
“Well, that’s kind of a long story. Maybe I’d better let Angel tell you about it.”
Buffy raised her eyebrows. “What’s so long about it? Just give me the Cliff Notes version. This baby belongs to--insert Mother and Father’s names here.” Buffy gazed at her in expectation as Fred started to turn red in the face.
Suddenly there were voices in the lobby. “Fred, hey, Fred, where are you? She didn’t just run off, did she?”
“Maybe she’s hiding in her room again.” Buffy recognized Wesley and Gunn’s voices. A moment later, the ex-Watcher appeared in the kitchen doorway, stopping short in surprise at the sight of Buffy cradling the infant.
Buffy gave him a broad beatific smile. “Hello, Wesley. Fred and I were just talking about the baby. She was going to tell me who the parents are--I think. But she seems to be having trouble. Maybe you can help her out.”
Wesley stared in obviously mounting consternation as Gunn bumped into him from behind. “Yo, Wes, why you blocking the entrance like a doorstop? Is Fred…..oh.” He looked over Wesley’s shoulder at Buffy while Fred tried to make surreptitiously frantic shushing motions behind her back.
“Hi. I remember you. Gunn, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. And you’re Buffy.”
“Is Angel with you? This tiny baby evidently has a BIG story behind it and supposedly only Angel can fill me in on it. Where is he?”
Gunn exchanged looks with everybody else in the room. The baby must have sensed the tension because he began to squirm and then wail. Buffy jiggled him up and down and then rolled her eyes at the others. “Isn’t anybody going to say anything?”
“Hey, guys, what’s everybody looking at?” Angel appeared behind Gunn and froze like everybody else. “Buffy.”
Buffy gave him another brilliant smile. “Angel. Is there something you want to tell me?”
__________
Spike’d been frantic over losing Dawn, wondering if another demon had snatched her while his back was turned. Grinding his teeth in frustration, he’d finally broken down and called the house. Buffy’s sleepy voice had informed him that, yes, Dawn was home and, yes, she was safely tucked into bed. He’d started to tear into her about letting her sister wander around Sunnydale at night but she’d abruptly hung up on him. Subsequent calls had only met with a busy signal.
Now he was streaking on his motorcycle towards L.A. The others didn’t need him around the Hellmouth but he was going to be damned if he’d just let Peaches have Buffy all to himself. He had the vial of demon blood tucked away safely into an inside pocket. He didn’t take too long to make his decision since he had to be in Los Angeles before dawn. He also wanted to get to stake out the Hyperion before Buffy arrived. That would enable him to see her without her seeing him.
Sure and then what? She’s here to see Angel not you. You’re definitely a fifth wheel in this arrangement, you dumb wanker. Spike growled softly to himself. If he showed up on the doorstep with blood in hand, that would convince her he was sincere about changing.
And if that doesn’t win her over, what will you do then? It was the old arguments. Maybe he ought to find out what she was doing at the hotel first.
Pulling up a couple of blocks from the Hyperion, he grudgingly conceded the place was damned impressive. He had to admit it, the pillock always did like to live in style.
“Angel has friends, a job, steady income and owns an entire building with heating and proper plumbing. Spike has his leather coat, items he picked up from the city dump and his crypt. That’s what he has to give Buffy? A hole in the ground? I think she’s had enough of that.”
Anya’s scathing words came back to haunt him. What did he have to offer Buffy that made him the better choice over Angel?
Thanks to the money Melissa had given him, he could afford a hotel, too. Well, a hotel room, anyway. He’d chosen the closest one; money had been no object. He needed to keep Buffy within range. Great. You were stalking her in Sunnydale and now you’re stalking her in L.A. Well, at least some things don’t change.
Kicking up the motorcycle stand, he resettled into the seat and drove back to his hotel. It would be dawn soon and he needed to spend the day planning his next move.
“You’re telling me this is Darla’s baby.”
Wesley nodded in response to Buffy’s flat statement. “That’s correct. She showed up here a few weeks ago quite pregnant and wanted Angel to help her through it, as it were.”
Buffy gave Angel a hard stare. “This is the same Darla you staked over four-and-a-half years ago, right? She came back as a human, resurrected by the good people at that law firm--what was the name?”
“Wolfram & Hart,” Fred threw in.
“The same people who hired Faith to kill Angel,” Wesley muttered.
“I remember. Okay, they brought her back so that she could turn Angel evil again. How did they expect her to do that, exactly?”
Angel hurriedly answered that one. “They brought her back with the disease that was killing her when she’d been human so many centuries ago.”
Cordelia spoke without a trace of sympathy. “Syphilis. Yep, that was our Darla. Turns out she was a prostitute in the old days. Guess old habits die hard. She couldn’t even tell us who the father was. It could be any number of guys--even Lindsey.”
Dawn piped up, “Who’s Lindsey?”
Gunn snorted. “He’s one of the sharks who used to work for Wolfram & Hart. He had a big old crush on Darla. He probably boned her when she was human.”
“Yes, that’s right. The pregnancy might have carried over to her vampire state.” Wesley stated that as if the idea had just occurred to him.
Buffy looked at Angel out of the corner of her eye. The whole story sounded extremely plausible but a little too good to be true. She pressed on with her questioning. “What does this have to do with turning you evil? And how did she become a vampire again?” Buffy’s eyes narrowed as something occurred to her. “Angel, you didn’t…..”
“No!”
“No way!”
“Absolutely not!” they all shouted in turn.
Angel said, “They did want me to save her by turning her into a vampire again. It was all part of their plan to make me Angelus by teaming me up with Darla the way we had been in the past. But I wouldn’t do it. So Lindsey rounded up Drusilla and she did the job instead.”
“Wait a minute. Drusilla makes an appearance in this story?” Buffy turned to Dawn. “I wonder if that was before or after she showed up in Sunnydale last year.”
Angel’s back stiffened. “She was in Sunnydale last year? Doing what?”
“Doing what she does best--she rode into town on a train and killed everybody on board. It was loud, attention-getting, sloppy slaughter. I think it was her way of trying to wheedle herself back into Spike’s good graces after she dumped him. It turned out to be an emotionally embarrassing night for everybody involved--especially Spike since he ended up losing three women in one go.” Buffy shook her head impatiently. “It’s not really important. Now back to your story. Darla becomes a vampire again, finds out she’s pregnant and hunts down Angel. Why didn’t she turn to this Lindsey guy?”
Cordelia said, “Well, he sorta quit Wolfram & Hart and took off for parts unknown. We haven’t seen him since. And if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll stay the hell out of Dodge.”
Dawn peeked at the baby nestled in Angel’s arms. “So out of all the guys she knew, she decided to lay this baby at Angel’s door. Guess she must have thought you were a sucker for a damsel-in-distress scenario.”
Buffy frowned at Dawn’s choice of words. She wanted to hear the end to this story. “So where’s Darla now? Why are you taking care of this kid without her? She take off, too?”
“She staked herself,” Angel replied quietly.
Buffy gaped, stunned speechless. Of all the answers she’d expected, this was the last she’d thought she’d hear. “What? Why?”
Angel stared down at Connor’s face. “Somehow, whatever magic had helped bring the child into existence started breaking down. Darla’s vampire body couldn’t provide any more sustenance for the baby. She knew it would die if it stayed in her body any longer. So she staked herself and the child was born amidst her ashes.”
“A bit extreme, don’t you think? I mean, hadn’t she ever heard of a caesarean?” Dawn quipped. She fidgeted when the others stared at her. “I’m just saying.”
“We were in a rather tough situation. Other people had gotten wind of the birth and wanted to get hold of the baby for themselves. The one time we got Darla into a hospital, we were attacked by a holy order of vampires who wanted to take the baby and decorate the room with our insides,” Gunn told her.
“Holy order of vampires? Now there’s some words I never thought I’d hear in the same sentence. So Darla stakes herself and you wind up with the kid.” Buffy gazed wistfully at the bundle in Angel’s arms. “It’s crazy. You left me so I could have a normal life, my so-called normal boyfriend left me after sleazing around at night in the arms of vampire sluts and then I die--while you come to L.A. and get a baby. Life is just loaded with irony. Somewhere the gods are laughing and one of them is a crazy blonde Hellgod who wears designer outfits.” Buffy’s shoulders sagged while an uncomfortable silence filled the lobby. Dawn hugged her awkwardly while Angel tried to think of something to say to ease Buffy’s obvious misery.
Just then, Dawn lifted her head and glanced toward the stairs. Her squeak of alarm caused Buffy to spin around while Connor woke up and started to cry again. Lorne paused in surprise as everybody jumped, staring wildly in his direction.
“Well, hello to you too, Miss. I take it Angel didn’t mention me?”
Buffy recovered first. “Oh, you must be the demon Angel said was staying here. In all the mess of packing, I sorta forget to tell you, Dawn.”
The host fluttered his hands in dismissal. “It’s no big, sweetie. And I prefer Lorne to ‘demon,’ thank you.” He peered speculatively at Buffy. “So you’re the young lady who’s got Angel all hot and bothered. Pleased to meet you at last.” He held out one green hand which Buffy stared at before shaking. Lorne leaned over and whispered, “I can’t wait to hear you sing.”
Buffy jerked her hand away and clenched her teeth. “Sing? Why do you want to hear me sing?”
Lorne raised his brows. “It’s what I do, sweetie. I read people’s innermost feelings and learn something about their futures. But only when they sing.”
Dawn shrank behind her older sister while Buffy eyed him nervously. “You wouldn’t be in the market for a child bride, would you? Because we’ve been through that and Dawn’s just not interested.”
Lorne blinked and then spoke slowly, “Oooooooookay. That’s either a non sequitor or a really fascinating story I haven’t heard yet. Care to tell ole Lorne the details?”
Buffy thought about it briefly--the singing-and-dancing spell that had led to her first kiss with Spike, beginning the whole doomed affair with him--and shuddered. “No thanks. Done the sing-and-tell bit. It wasn’t pretty. I really don’t want to relive it.”
The Host shrugged. “Suit yourself, babe.” He glanced over at Angel who was trying to hush the crying baby. “Hey, Ange, how about letting me take him for a bit?” Angel handed over Connor to Lorne who promptly began crooning, “Goodnight, my angel, time to close your eyes and save these questions for another day. I think I know what you’ve been asking me….”
Connor’s cries died away to happy gurglings and then quiet yawning. In moments, he was fast asleep. He carried the baby upstairs while Buffy stared after him in astonishment.
“So Buffy, what did you and Dawn want to do this weekend?”
Buffy tore her eyes away from Lorne’s retreating figure with an effort. “Huh? Oh, uh, Dawn wanted to go shopping in some of L.A.’s finer malls.”
Dawn perked up at once. “Yeah, I so totally need new clothes. I’ve had this dress like forever.”
Cordelia gave a big grin. “Let me just grab my purse and we girls can hit the town.” Buffy tried to catch Angel’s eye. She really needed to speak to him and this was the perfect opportunity to get Dawn out of the way.
Angel quickly picked up his cue. “Actually, Wesley and I had some research to do about a major prophecy and we could really use Buffy’s help.”
Wesley blinked in confusion. “We do?” Angel glared at him. “Oh, yes, we do. Quite. Um, it’s about that…thing with the horns and the steel claws.”
Gunn picked up the thread. “Yeah, and he’s supposed to hang out in lower L.A. We need to start hitting the books.” Buffy threw them a tiny smile.
But Cordelia was oblivious to their byplay. “What prophecy? How important can it be? Look, if there were anything going on of major importance, the Powers That Be would have sent me another mind-blowing, skull-crushing vision and since I’m not getting one…..”
“I’m giving you the day off, Cordelia.”
Cordelia gaped at Wesley. “What? You are?”
He nodded vigorously, knowing that would be the only way to get rid of her. “Absolutely. I know how difficult these visions can be and you definitely need to relax. So take Dawn and Fred with you and enjoy yourselves.”
Cordelia didn’t need to be told twice. “Angel! Keys!” The vampire tossed them to her and she sped out the lobby door with the two other females in tow.
There was an awkward silence after the others left that no one seemed to want to disturb. Then Gunn and Wesley scrambled to exit. “You two probably have a great deal of catching up to do, so we’ll just leave you alone.”
Gunn hastily amended, “Yeah, but we’ll be close by in case you need us for….anything. Just give a shout out, okay?”
After they left, Buffy smirked at Angel. “Gosh, not subtle, are they? Don’t they trust you to behave?”
Angel shook his head, a rare smile tugging at his lips. “I think they’re afraid I’ll just jump you and start tearing off your clothes.”
Buffy gave a mechanical nod. “You mean like last time,” she said without thinking.
Angel stilled and Buffy’s eyes flew to his face, realizing what she’d just said. Although his face maintained its usual blank impassivity, she knew at once that she’d been right. “Oh my god. It’s true. It really happened, didn’t it?”
“Buffy, I don’t know….”
“Don’t. Don’t you dare lie to me! You--you were human. I had a dream about it in Sunnydale, only it wasn’t like any dream I’d ever had. This was vivid, in full-blown technicolor like those visions of your past the Three sent me. Somehow you were human and then you weren’t. You had humanity and you just threw it away. Why? How could you do that?”
Angel turned away, unwilling to bear the sight of her pain and anger. She darted in front of him. She wasn’t going to allow him to escape her with evasions and excuses. “Come on, Angel. Tell me what happened. And why I apparently didn’t remember it until last night.”
He took an unnecessary breath. “Buffy, if you had a dream about this, then you know what happened.”
She clenched her fists as if restraining herself from hitting him hard. “I got the part where we had sex on a kitchen table.” His eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “I could feel your heart beating. And I figured out that the Mohra blood had something to do with it. What I don’t know is what happened before or after it. So spill it, Angel.”
“You came here to L.A. to visit your father.” She waved her hand impatiently. “Right. You remember that part. You also remember the Mohra coming through the window and my smashing the jewel in its forehead with a clock. But in another….reality, I didn’t know what it was or how to kill it. I stabbed it and we both tracked it into the sewers. It was daylight so you went to the Long Bar on the beach to find it and I stayed below. It attacked me from behind, it wounded me and I killed it. Or so I thought. Anyway, I wounded it badly and some of its blood mixed with my own. It made me human. For a whole day.”
Unconsciously Buffy had moved to the lobby couch and sank into it, her eyes locked on his face. “And we were together? For that entire day?” He didn’t move or answer. She closed her eyes and then they flew open. “Obviously something happened to undo all that. What?”
“The demon wasn’t dead. It regenerated itself. I wanted to see if I could take it on my own without endangering your life in any way. But it was too much for me. It’d gotten bigger and stronger and it would have killed me, but you came to my rescue. Doyle had given me the clue to killing it, you broke the jewel in its forehead with a mace and that finished it off.”
“So then what happened? If I killed the bad guy, how did you become a vampire again?”
He started to stride restlessly up and down. This was the part that was going to be difficult; he knew that from previous experience. “After that disastrous outing fighting evil in a mortal body, I knew there was no way I could do it and protect the innocent. So I went to the Oracles--they were my conduits to the Powers before they were killed--and asked them to change me back. They turned back time to before the Mohra first attacked and I killed it before its blood made me human.”
“And by doing that, you erased an entire day as if it never happened. Did you consult me before you went to the Oracles? Or is this a decision you made on your own, like the time you left Sunnydale?”
“I was afraid that if I saw you again, I wouldn’t be able to go through with it.”
Buffy exploded in anger. “God, Angel, what is it with you!?! Why are you always making these life-altering decisions without asking me? Did it occur to you that we could have worked things out, that we might have been able to keep fighting together even with you as a human? I mean, I’d been battling the forces of evil with Giles, Xander and Willow back when they were just ordinary humans. You think they ever let that stand in their way? Do you think I did? What makes you so damn special that you have to be some sort of superhero in order to save the world?”
“Buffy, we’ve had this conversation before even if you don’t remember it. I’m not the one that’s special. You are. I did it to save you.”
Buffy laughed, a harsh and unpleasant sound. “Well, funny it didn’t turn out that way, did it? Angel, I’ve got a very short lifespan. And after dying twice, you got to figure my luck’s running out. And you thought that you could save my life by making bargains with these unseen Powers? It’s pretty clear from where I stand that the best-laid plans of mice and men don’t mean crap where they’re concerned. So why couldn’t you just stick with what you had?”
She slumped back into the couch. “You know, Melissa was determined to get her humanity back. She fought for it tooth and nail. I just wish you’d put up half her fight.”
Angel stared at her in confusion. “Who’s Melissa?”
She looked up at him wearily. “I didn’t mention her? No, I guess I didn’t. She was a vampire when she came to me. She said she wanted to be human. She was a minion for that Onegin I told you about. He called up a Mohra to kill me, I kicked its ass and got her the blood. She used it and became human again. That was the last I saw of her.”
Angel’s mind reeled at the revelation suddenly presented to him. It must have been this Melissa who sent him the blood. But why?
“Buffy, did you ever mention me to this vampire?”
She wrinkled her brows. “Of course I did. I’d remembered seeing the Mohra in your office, though I only got a glimpse of it before you killed it. I told her you were the one who gave me the information. She wanted me to thank you. Guess I forgot to do that.” She gave him a tight humorless smile. “Why? Is it important?”
“No. I just wondered if she ever came to L.A. to look for me. I guess she wasn’t that grateful if she couldn’t be bothered to thank me.” But Angel realized that the former vampire had thanked him. Buffy must have told her of their ill-fated love affair and she had taken it into her head to play matchmaker. He also realized that she’d kept Buffy ignorant of her act. Otherwise the blonde Slayer would have asked him about the bottle secreted away in his nightstand drawer.
So now he knew who had sent the gift and why. It changed nothing. He broke out of his reverie to find Buffy glaring at him with suspiciously bright eyes.
“Boy, I really enjoy these little visits of ours, Angel. I’m always learning something about you that really pisses me off. Maybe it’s because you’re a man or maybe it’s because you’re over two hundred years old, but you obviously feel that you always have to protect me by making these big decisions all by yourself. Makes me wonder if you treat your co-workers like this.”
“He does, actually. It can be rather infuriating,” Wesley commented wryly. He’d entered the room just in time to hear Buffy’s last statements.
Angel glared at him. “Wesley. What happened to giving us some time alone?”
Wesley spoke to Buffy. “I just got a call from Willow. She said she needs to speak to you urgently.”
Buffy went into Wesley’s office and picked up the phone. “Willow. What is it?”
Willow’s concerned voice came over the line. “Buffy, you okay? Your voice sounds a little strange.”
Buffy blinked fiercely, determined not to cry. “I’m just fine, thanks for asking. Angel and I were talking over old times. What’s the matter? Wesley said it was urgent.”
“It is. After you left, I decided to use the scrying mirror to keep tabs on Spike. It didn’t show him in his crypt but in a hotel room. Buffy, Spike is in L.A.”
Buffy shouted, “WHAT?!?! Oh great, that’s all I need, the dyed wonder himself dogging my heels. When is he going to get the message that he isn’t wanted?” She paused, struggling to get her irritation and anger under control. “You’re sure the avoidance spell is still working?”
“Absolutely. He can’t come near you. But I didn’t cast the spell on Dawn so he can still haunt her if he wants.”
“Oh, he’ll definitely want. He’ll get close to me anyway he can, even if that means sucking up to my little sister. What I want to know is how he found out where I was going. I only decided to come to L.A. last night and I didn’t tell anyone except….” Buffy’s jaw tightened as the truth hit her. “Dawn--she must have told him. That brat!” she fumed.
“Now, Buffy, don’t do anything rash. Dawn probably had a good reason for telling Spike.”
“Such as?”
“Uh, um, well, okay, I can’t think of one off the top of my head. But while you were…gone this summer, she spent a lot of time with him. I guess she got in the habit of talking with him. And he did take care of her just like he promised. Since you’ve come back, she just hasn’t fallen back as quickly into the old routine as you’d like. Spike’s just--familiar, that’s all.”
Buffy sat tiredly on the edge of Wesley’s desk. “He’s familiar, all right. A familiar pain in the ass. Thanks for the heads up, Wills. I don’t think I’ll let Dawn know I know. I came up to L.A. to have an enjoyable weekend with her. I won’t let Spike spoil that.”
“How is Angel, by the way?”
“Funny you should ask….”

TBC
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