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Reprise Revised	By : Maren Category: Angel the Series > Het - Male/Female Views: 4248 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Angel: The Series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Email: marenfic@yahoo.com

Spoiler Warning: Angel Season 5 up to You�re Welcome�I�ve diverged at YW. Cordy has died but they haven�t figured out
the Lindsey/Eve/Doyle connection yet.

Disclaimer: I don�t own any of these characters, and I won�t be profiting off
of them.

Pairing: B/A so far. I�m sure after this chapter you can guess who
is next. I won�t be pairing B&W, but
if you want to slash them, feel free to let your mind take you where it will
after their bedroom scene.

Feedback: This is my first fic, so I�d appreciate feedback. Thanks to everyone who has emailed or
reviewed do far

*********************************************************************

It was early evening when Willow
arrived at Wolfram & Hart. Wesley
had called her and given her the barest of details before telling her a jet was
on its way. She had spent the plane
ride wondering just what was going on in L.A. Mostly she was curious how they had managed
to just stand by while Angel lost his soul.
Again.

Now that she was here she was eager to hear the whole
story. Wesley had greeted her in the
lobby and told her that she would find Buffy upstairs in the penthouse. Then he hurried off before she could do more
than say hello. Willow
was a little irritated that she had to wait to really find out what had
happened and that she would have to ask Buffy to talk to her about something
that souldould clearly find very painful.

If she was honest with herself, she also had to admit she
felt apprehensive about seeing Buffy again.
It had been several months since they had seen each other in
person. Talking on the phone just didn�t
provide the same level of intimacy and she felt distant from Buffy�and it
wasn�t just their disparate locations.
They hadn�t been as close for several years now, and while Willow
missed having the slayer as her best frieit hit had been difficult for her to
let down her own defenses to try to rebuild the relationship.

Willow was
actually a little surprised to hear that Buffy was in L.A. The last time they had talked Buffy had
seemed happy to have some alone time with Dawn for a little while before a new
batch of mini-slayers rolled in. She
hadn�t mentioned a trip to the U.S.,
much less a trip to visit her ex-boyfriend-turned-CEO.

Lost in her thoughts, Willow
didn�t notice right away when the elevator reached its destination and the
doors slid open.

�Uh, earth to Earth-Mother�anybody home?� Buffy�s voice brokto hto her reverie.

�Buffy!� exclaimed Willow,
snapping to attention and entering the apartments. She walked up to her friend and wrapped her
arms around her in a hug. She could feel
the tension in Buffy, could feel how tightly wound and amazingly alert she
was. It was a split-second before Buffy
let herself relax just a bit into the embrace, and then she pulled away. Willow
tried to hide her hurt. It was always
painfu be be reminded how far apart they had grown.

�So, Angel has some nice digs here, huh?� Willow
asked, and then immediately regretted her choice of words when she saw the look
on Buffy�s face. �I. . I�m sorry.
I know you must be so worried.�

Buffy quickly wiped the devastated look off of her
face. She couldn�t let her emotions control
her anymore. She had let herself give
into them less than 24-hours ago and Angel had lost his soul as a result. She had been telling herself all day to keep
focused and prepare herself for the inevitable meeting with Angelus. This time she couldn�t allow her feelings to
get in the way of her duty; she couldn�t allow another Jenny situation to
occur.

�It�s o.k. I. . .
I�ll be fine. This place is pretty
nice-- I just got here a little while ago myself. We decided it would be better if everyone stayed
here alfralfram & Hart with the Angelus-alarm to protect us. I guess Angel�s apartment was the best place
to keep us.� Buffy�s voice was carefully
controlled, and her eyes seemed veiled to Willow.

�What happened?� Willow
asked gently. �All I�ve heard is that
Angelus is on the loose again, but n�t n�t figure out how they let that
happen. Surely they didn�t try to
release him on purpose like last time?�

Buffy took a deep breath, picked up the glass of water that
she had set down when Willow had
arrived, and took a drink. Then she
looked at Willow. �It wasn�t them, Willow. It was me.
Angel and I were. . . together. . . last night.� She showed the witch the healing mark on her
neck. �He fed from me, I blacked out,
and when I woke up he was gone from the face of the earth�or he might as well
be for all we know about where he is.�
Buffy delivered the news in a monotone, never breaking eye-contact.

The revelation was met by silence. Willow
realized she wasn�t as shocked by the news as she should be, but she didn�t
know what to say. She looked down at the
floor as she thought of Buffy and Angel�s troubled history. The sound of shattering glass got her
attention, and her head whipped up to see Buffy staring at the hand that had
held the glass of water. Now there was a
large shard lacerating her palm, and blood was streaming from the cut and
falling to the ground amidst the rest of the broken glass on the floor.

clasclass=MsoNormal>

Willow quickly
stepped forward and grabbed her wounded hand.
�Oh my god, Buffy. I�m going to
pull this out. I�m sorry, but it will
hurt,� she said, and then carefully pulled the sharp piece of glass from
Buffy�s hand. Buffy didn�t make a sound,
just continued to stare at the spot where the glass had been. Willow
led her to the bathroom, cleaned the wound, and wrapped her hand in a white
bandage. She led the still silent and
disconcertingly detached Buffy to Angel�s and helped her get under the
covers.

�I think you should try to get some sleep. You�ve been through a lot and we can talk
when you are more rested,� Willow bent and whispered close to her ear. She pulled up the covers, started to move her
hand to smooth Buffy�s hair, and stopped herself. Turning off the lamp, she went back into the
living room. She decided to call Kennedy
to let her know she had arrived safely, and then she checked her luggage for
the re-souling spell ingredients for the hundredth time since she had
packed.

It was about an hour later when Willow
heard sounds coming from Angel�s bedroom.
She put down the book she had been reading and rose from the couch to
see if Buffy might need something. When
she entered the dark room, she could hear Buffy�s quiet cries. Willow�s
heart contracted in pain at the sound of her friend�s misery. She made her way to the bed any doy down next
to Buffy, curling herself behind her and wrapping an arm around her waist. She touched her forehead to the back of
Buffy�s head, and just held her as she cried.

At the contact, Buffy�s cries came harder. A few minutes passed before Buffy drew in a
breath and said, �I did it, I did it to him and now I will probably have to
kill him again. It hurts so much.�

�I�m so stupid, Will!
God, before I had the excuse of not knowing but I don�t have that this
time. I�m stupid and selfish and once
again I�ve fucked everything up,� Buffy cried.
Her tears turned to sobs as she continued. �Why do I . . . always hurt the people I
love? Everyone I�ve ever loved, everyone
who has ever loved me . . . I ruin everything.�
Her voice faded away to a whisper as she finished, �I feel like I�m
going to crack and shatter into a million pieces, and I deserve it.�

Willow just held
onto her friend, rocking her in her arms and making low soothing sounds as she
tried not to break down into tears herself.

Buffy turned so that
she faced Willow. �I�m so sorry Will. I�m sorry that I�ve hurt you, hurt
Xander. I know I don�t deserve your
friendship, but I miss you so much.� Her
tear-stained face stared miserably into Willow�s.

Willow couldn�t
hold back her own tears any longer.
�Buffy, you�re not the only one who has hurt people, who has been
selfish. I miss you so much, too. I don�t know how we let ourselves grow so far
apart. I don�t want for us to continue
to hide parts of ourselves from each other.
We live crazy, not-normal lives�we need each other, need to be able to
talk about anything or we will never survive.�

She touched her nose to Buffy�s and stared into her
eyes. �I don�t want to lose you again,
Buffy. I don�t want you to take all of
this craziness with Angel onto yourself and I don�t want you to push it inside
of yourself to hide it from me. Let�s
trust each other. Let�s be friends
again.�

Buffy�s sobs had quieted as she listened to Willow,
and she slowly nodded as she stared into her friend�s warm, caring eyes. She took a deep, wracking breath and said,
�So I guess we have a lot to talk about.�

They spent most of the rest of the night filling each other
in on their lives, their thoughts, and their feelings. It was emotionally draining and fortifying at
the same time, and when they were too exhausted to continue, they fell asleep
wrapped in each others� arms.

************************************************************************

After putting Willow
on the elevator to the penthouse, Wesley had hurried back to his office to
continue his perusal of the books of prophesy that littered his desk. He felt drawn to the texts, and he was
strangely sure that the answers were right there. Unfortunately, he didn�t know what the
questions were yet. It was frustrating,
but with Angelus on the loose he didn�t feel he had any time to lose. So he continued his needle-in-the-haystack
search for a prophesy he didn�t even know he would recognize when he saw it.

He was reading a Sumerian text when he heard a sharp knock
on his office door. He looked up to see
Faith leaning against the wall, arms crossed under her chest. His heart began racing and he felt a little
short of breath. He had had this
reaction to her presence the last time he had seen her too, but this time he
was a little more willing to admit that it might not be all due to his memories
of torture at her hand. If his
experiences with Lilah had taught him anything, it was that he had a thing for
bad girls. Plus, no one could deny that
this Slayer was sexy as hell.

�Faith.� He said,
standing up. Her name was sugar on his
tongue.

�Hey Wes. Ya know,
I�m going to start thinkin� you�re setting Angelus loose on purpose. Can�t get enough of me, can you?� she
quipped, looking at him a little warily.

�Yes, well. I�m
afraid it wasn�t my idea this time. It
seems that Angel and Buffy. . .� he stopped to clear his throat before
continuing, �. . . were reunited last
night.�

�Ahhh, so the big horny finally got the best of �em. Well, I can�t say I�m totally surprised. A girl has needs you know, and a slayer feels
things a little more intensely thour our average Jane,� Faith responded. �So if B is here, whadya need me for? I doubt the �drug him and live in his head
while he fights his soul� trick will work again.�

�I think it best if we have back-up. I�m not sure how much we�ll be abo coo count
on Buffy�s ability to kill Angelus if we aren�t successful returning his soul,�
Wes explained. He didn�t tell her that
even if there were 5 other slayers on the case he would have called her in.

Faith dropped her arms and walked over to him. �Angel means a lot to me too, Wes. I wouldn�t be here without him,� she paused
and looked at him intently, �or you.�

�Yes, well . . . we�ve been successful at returning his soul
twice before. Let�s hope it works
again. Then none of us will have to test
our loyalty to Angel vs. our hatred of Angelus.� Wes chose toore ore her subtle apology and
gratitude for the moment. He wasn�t
quite ready to completely forgive her for torturing him 4 years ago, even if
she had reformed and saved his life last year.
Hot, intense attraction warred with distrust and fear and Wesley was
left with a spinning head and a knot in his stomach.

Faith continued looking at him for a moment before nodding
her agreement. She flung one arm toward
the door. �As much as I�m dyin� to get
this party started, you got someplace for me to crash? I need a bath and some shut-eye.�

Wesley had planned to send her up to the penthousean
an
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Angel had a big bed and several comfy couches
for the women to occupy. So he was just
as surprised as Faith when he answered, �Yes.
You can stay in my company apartment while you�re in town. We�re fairly booked at the moment given our
inability to leave here after dark,� he faltered as he saw the surprised look
on her face. �If that�s all right with
you, anyway.�

Faith shrugged her shoulders. �Sure.
Works for me. Once you�ve bunked
up with Big-House Bertha, everything else is a walk in the park.� She walked towards the door, pi up up the
duffel bag she had left just outside, and looked back over her shoulder.

�Comin�?�

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- 7
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Reprise Revised